To these more simple and idyllic poems the great body of Tennyson's readers will come, because they are noble and hopeful, and because they strike the keynote of how many experiences!

More distinctly than any other Tennyson has been the patriotic poet of England in his time. His "Charge of the Light Brigade," "Ode to Wellington," "The Third of February, 1852," and other patriotic poems, tell how ardent his sympathy with English institutions and ideas. The triumphs of his countrymen by him have been sung in a manner to satisfy the national zeal of the most enthusiastic. At times even he can speak with a voice of terrible meaning in rebuke and in scorn of the tyrant's sway. The English hate of the Buonapartes and their methods has been his own.

We love not this French God, the child of Hell,
Wild War, who breaks the converse of the wise;

But though we love kind Peace so well,

We dare not ev'n by silence sanction lies.

It might be safe our censure to withdraw ;

And yet, my Lords, not well: there is a higher law. Battle for the right, and in the name of a more righteous obedience to the higher law, Tennyson has been ready to praise and to make glorious by his song. When roused by some great deed, or

when fired by hatred of some giant wrong, he has made his verse like the tramp of armies and the sound of many cannon. A lover of peace, a righteous cause appeals to all that is manly and heroic in his nature.

Tennyson may be regarded as an idyllic rather than a lyrical poet. He is the poet of a time of profound peace. In "Locksley Hall" and in "Maud" he is full of energy and passion, and the lyric quality of his mind manifests itself with spirit and force. It is not his habit, however, to give unrestrained play to sentiment and passion, to the tragedy and stormy conflict of the emotions. On the other hand, he is not a poet of reflection only, and of a merely intellectual interpretation of life. He combines the two in a very effective manner, adding to his contemplative habit of mind a rare wealth of sentiment and emotion. It is the peaceful life of his own time he has surcharged with feeling, as in "Maud' "In Memoriam," "The Princess," "Locksley Hall," "Enoch Arden," and and many of his

shorter poems.

Into the region of the romantic he has ventured, in the "Idyls of the King," "The Princess," and some of his shorter pieces. There he

shows himself capable of feeling and passion, but they are held in check and guided to ends acceptable to the poet's artistic and intellectual cast of thought. More of passion and of tragic insight would have made these poems greater and nobler. They are now open to the charge of being sometimes tame and unheroic. If they had a little more of vigor, stern purpose, and the courage of high resolve, they would be more worthy of our love and the poet's genius. When we seek the chief characteristic of Tennyson we find it in his lines,

'Tis life whereof our nerves are scant,

More life and fuller that we want.

Not theories, not creeds, not forms of government, has he sought as a man and a poet; but to realize life in some larger and diviner fashion, and to make it one with all that is beautiful, true, and good. He is the poet of manly joy, and of a vigorous sense of the worth of life. It is life on earth and among men he delights in; its sentiments, aspirations, and affections are those which win the suffrages of his thought. The life of this present time he would make greater in thought, fresher in spirit, nobler in aim; and he would bring to it the motives of an ideal faith in

humanity. Man, in all the round of his human experiences, is the theme of his verse; a theme often handled on the level of each day's most urgent need for hope, courage, and love. Life is to him full of infinite riches; and of these he he has gathered such as he felt would best serve the ends of his own being and the good of the world.

VIII.

It was well that Tennyson should change the direction of his poetic expression with the coming of age. A change in manner gives freshness and a new incentive; at least, they keep the poet from the evils of repetition and stagnation. The necessity of coping with new conditions leads to a fresh putting forth of power, and to the using of other capacities than those hitherto employed. A long continued use of any one method of expression generates careless habits and a want of fresh purpose. The pleasure of novelty comes with the use of new poetic forms, and the mind is stimulated by the unaccustomed conditions under which it is employed.

Before the writing of "Queen Mary" Tennyson had not made use of the drama. Some trace of dramatic capacity his poetry had shown, and a few of his more attentive critics had predicted