第 35 节
作者:理性的思索      更新:2021-02-21 10:16      字数:9322
  This is a theory like another; and is perhaps attractive to the
  young。  The poet must have strong passions; or how can he sing of
  them:  he must be tossed and whirled in the stress of things; like
  Shelley's autumn leaves; …
  〃Ghosts from an enchanter fleeing。〃
  Looking at Burns; Byron; Musset; or even at Shelley's earlier years;
  youth sees in them the true poets; 〃sacred things;〃 but also 〃light;〃
  as Plato says; inspired to break their wings against the nature of
  existence; and the flammantia maenia mundi。  But this is almost a
  boyish idea; this idea that the true poet is the slave of the
  passions; and that the poet who dominates them has none; and is but a
  staid domestic animal; an ass browsing the common; as somebody has
  written about Wordsworth。  Certainly Tennyson's was no 〃passionless
  perfection。〃  He; like others; was tempted to beat with ineffectual
  wings against the inscrutable nature of life。  He; too; had his dark
  hour; and was as subject to temptation as they who yielded to the
  stress and died; or became unhappy waifs; 〃young men with a splendid
  past。〃  He must have known; no less than Musset; the attractions of
  many a paradis artificiel; with its bright visions; its houris; its
  offers of oblivion of pain。  〃He had the look of one who had suffered
  greatly;〃 Mr Palgrave writes in his record of their first meeting in
  1842。  But he; like Goethe; Scott; and Victor Hugo; had strength as
  well as passion and emotion; he came unscorched through the fire that
  has burned away the wings of so many other great poets。  This was no
  less fortunate for the world than for himself。  Of his prolonged dark
  hour we know little in detail; but we have seen that from the first
  he resisted the Tempter; Ulysses is his Retro Sathanas!
  About 〃the mechanism of genius〃 in Tennyson Mr Palgrave has told us a
  little; more appears incidentally in his biography。  〃It was his way
  that when we had entered on some scene of special beauty or grandeur;
  after enjoying it together; he should always withdraw wholly from
  sight; and study the view; as it were; in a little artificial
  solitude。〃
  Tennyson's poems; Mr Palgrave says; often arose in a kind of point de
  repere (like those forms and landscapes which seem to spring from a
  floating point of light; beheld with closed eyes just before we
  sleep)。  〃More than once he said that his poems sprang often from a
  'nucleus;' some one word; maybe; or brief melodious phrase; which had
  floated through the brain; as it were; unbidden。  And perhaps at once
  while walking they were presently wrought into a little song。  But if
  he did not write it down at once the lyric fled from him
  irrecoverably。〃  He believed himself thus to have lost poems as good
  as his best。  It seems probable that this is a common genesis of
  verses; good or bad; among all who write。  Like Dickens; and like
  most men of genius probably; he saw all the scenes of his poems 〃in
  his mind's eye。〃  Many authors do this; without the power of making
  their readers share the vision; but probably few can impart the
  vision who do not themselves 〃visualise〃 with distinctness。  We have
  seen; in the cases of The Holy Grail and other pieces; that Tennyson;
  after long meditating a subject; often wrote very rapidly; and with
  little need of correction。  He was born with 〃style〃; it was a gift
  of his genius rather than the result of conscious elaboration。  Yet
  he did use 〃the file;〃 of which much is now written; especially for
  the purpose of polishing away the sibilants; so common in our
  language。  In the nine years of silence which followed the little
  book of 1833 his poems matured; and henceforth it is probable that he
  altered his verses little; if we except the modifications in The
  Princess。  Many slight verbal touches were made; or old readings were
  restored; but important changes; in the way of omission or addition;
  became rare。
  Of nature Tennyson was scrupulously observant till his very latest
  days; eagerly noting; not only 〃effects;〃 as a painter does; but
  their causes; botanical or geological。  Had man been scientific from
  the beginning he would probably have evolved no poetry at all;
  material things would not have been endowed by him with life and
  passion; he would have told himself no stories of the origins of
  stars and flowers; clouds and fire; winds and rainbows。  Modern poets
  have resented; like Keats and Wordsworth; the destruction of the old
  prehistoric dreams by the geologist and by other scientific
  characters。  But it was part of Tennyson's poetic originality to see
  the beautiful things of nature at once with the vision of early
  poetic men; and of moderns accustomed to the microscope; telescope;
  spectrum analysis; and so forth。  Thus Tennyson received a double
  delight from the sensible universe; and it is a double delight that
  he communicates to his readers。  His intellect was thus always
  active; even in apparent repose。  His eyes rested not from observing;
  or his mind from recording and comparing; the beautiful familiar
  phenomena of earth and sky。  In the matter of the study of books we
  have seen how deeply versed he was in certain of the Greek; Roman;
  and Italian classics。  Mr Jowett writes:  〃He was what might be
  called a good scholar in the university or public…school sense of the
  term; 。 。 。 yet I seem to remember that he had his favourite
  classics; such as Homer; and Pindar; and Theocritus。 。 。 。 He was
  also a lover of Greek fragments。  But I am not sure whether; in later
  life; he ever sat down to read consecutively the greatest works of
  AEschylus and Sophocles; although he used occasionally to dip into
  them。〃  The Greek dramatists; in fact; seem to have affected
  Tennyson's work but slightly; while he constantly reminds us of
  Virgil; Homer; Theocritus; and even Persius and Horace。  Mediaeval
  French; whether in poetry or prose; and the poetry of the 〃Pleiad〃
  seems to have occupied little of his attention。  Into the oriental
  literatures he dippedpretty deeply for his Akbar; and even his
  Locksley Hall owed something to Sir William Jones's version of 〃the
  old Arabian Moallakat。〃  The debt appears to be infinitesimal。  He
  seems to have been less closely familiar with Elizabethan poetry than
  might have been expected:  a number of his obiter dicta on all kinds
  of literary points are recorded in the Life by Mr Palgrave。  〃Sir
  Walter Scott's short tale; My Aunt Margaret's Mirror (how little
  known!); he once spoke of as the finest of all ghost or magical
  stories。〃  Lord Tennyson adds; 〃The Tapestried Chamber also he
  greatly admired。〃  Both are lost from modern view among the short
  pieces of the last volumes of the Waverley novels。  Of the poet's
  interest in and attitude towards the more obscure pyschological and
  psychical problemsto popular science foolishnessenough has been
  said; but the remarks of Professor Tyndall have not been cited:…
  My special purpose in introducing this poem; however; was to call
  your attention to a passage further on which greatly interested me。
  The poem is; throughout; a discussion between a believer in
  immortality and one who is unable to believe。  The method pursued is
  this。  The Sage reads a portion of the scroll; which he has taken
  from the hands of his follower; and then brings his own arguments to
  bear upon that portion; with a view to neutralising the scepticism of
  the younger man。  Let me here remark that I read the whole series of
  poems published under the title 〃Tiresias;〃 full of admiration for
  their freshness and vigour。  Seven years after I had first read them
  your father died; and you; his son; asked me to contribute a chapter
  to the book which you contemplate publishing。  I knew that I had some
  small store of references to my interview with your father carefully
  written in ancient journals。  On the receipt of your request; I
  looked up the account of my first visit to Farringford; and there; to
  my profound astonishment; I found described that experience of your
  father's which; in the mouth of the Ancient Sage; was made the ground
  of an important argument against materialism and in favour of
  personal immortality eight…and…twenty years afterwards。  In no other
  poem during all these years is; to my knowledge; this experience once
  alluded to。  I had completely forgotten it; but here it was recorded
  in black and white。  If you turn to your father's account of the
  wonderful state of consciousness superinduced by thinking of his own
  name; and compare it with the argument of the Ancient Sage; you will
  see that they refer to one and the same phenomenon。
  And more; my son! for more than once when I
  Sat all alone; revolving in myself
  The word that is the symbol of myself;
  The mortal limit of the Self was loosed;
  And past into the Nameless; as a cloud
  Melts into heaven。  I touch'd my limbs; the limbs
  Were strange; not mineand yet no shade of doubt;
  But utter clearness; and thro' loss of Self
  The gain of such large life as match'd with ours
  Were Sun to sparkunshadowable in words;
  Themselves but shadows of a shadow…world。
  Any words about Tennyson as a politician are apt to excite the
  sleepless prejudice which haunts the political field。  He probably;
  if forced to 〃put a name to i