第 35 节
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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