The rest of Tennyson's poetical work in cludes his dramas Mary,' (Harold,' (Becket,' (The Cup and the Falcon,' and a few others and several volumes of miscellaneous poems: (Enoch Arden' (1864); (The Lover's Tale' (1879); (1880) ; (Tiresias) (1885) ; (Locksley Hall Sixty Years After' (1886); (Demeter' (1889) and Death of (Enone,' published posthumously in 1892. The great age to which his life was prolonged, the unswerving fidelity with which he devoted him self to the sole pursuit of his chosen art, the freshness of spirit which made him delight in labor to the very last, and the fine versatility of mind with which he turned from one field of production to another brought it to pass that both in amount and in variety of works Tenny son stands in the front rank of English poets; but two can be thought of Shakespeare and Robert Browning who produced more.
In 1883 a title of nobility was offered to Tennyson through Mr. Gladstone. This honor, which he had declined at least once before, he now accepted; and in January 1884 he was admitted (we can hardly say elevated) to the peerage taking his title, Baron of Aldworth and Farringford, from his two country houses, in Sussex and in the Isle of Wight.
It would be difficult, of course, to character ize the style and estimate the value of such a varied and fertile poet in a brief essay. But there are certain qualities in the poetry of Tennyson which are unmistakable and vital.
1. His diction is singularly lucid, smooth and melodious. He avoids sharp and strident effects. Not only in his choice of metres, but also in his choice of words and cadences, we feel a musical influence controlling his verse. Sometimes this results in a loss of force or definiteness. But it makes his poetry, whether in the long swinging lines of Hall,' or in the brief simple measures of the shorter songs, eminently read able. Auy one who recites it aloud will find how natural it is to fall, as Tennyson always did, into a rhythmical tone, almost like chanting. This close relation of his poetry to music may be felt also in the quality of subtle suggestive ness, of intimate and indefinable charm, which makes his brief lyrics as perfect as anything of their kind in the world's literature. He has the power of expressing the vague, delicate, yet potent emotions, the feelings that belong to the twilight of the heart, where the glow of love and the shadow of regret are mingled, in verbal melodies as simple and as magical as the chime of far-off bells, or the echoes of a bugle-call dying among the hills.
2. He has an extraordinary truthfulness and delicacy of touch in natural description. This
appears equally in minute, pre-Raphaelite work, where he speaks of the color of the buds on different trees in early spring, or in the way in which a wave-crest is reflected in the smooth hollow before it breaks; and in wide, vague landscapes, where he renders the turbulence of the coming storm, or the still glory of an autumnal morning, in a few broad lines. Add to this the quality of blending and interfusing all his epithets and descriptions with the senti ment of the poem, so that they do not distract the feeling but enhance and deepen it, and you have one of the traits by which the poetry of Tennyson is most eagerly distinguished.
3. His range of imaginative sympathy, as shown in his ballads and character pieces, is very wide; but it moves for the most part along natural and normal rather than strange and eccentric lines. His dramatic lyrics differ in this respect from those of Browning. Tennyson ex presses the feeling of the philosopher in
tius,' of the peasant in
4. His work reflects with singular fidelity the scientific and social movements of the age. The discoveries and inventions of modern times are translated into poetic language and turned to poetic use. In his verse the earth moves, the planets are molded of star-dust and the mystery of an unfinished creation is still in evolution. It is possible, often, to assign dates to his poems by an allusion to some newly-seen moon or comet, or some critical event in the social his tory of mankind. It is true that he mistrusts many of the new devices to bring in the millen nium. He takes a dark view of some of the elements of 19th century civilization. But still he feels the forward movement of the world; and his poetry mirrors truly the spirit of mod ern optimism with shadows.
5. As in its form, so in its spirit, the verse of Tennyson expresses a constant and controll ing sense of law and order. He is in the opposite camp from the poets of revolt. Har mony is essential to his conception of beauty. His patriotism is sober, steadfast, thoughtful, law-abiding. His love moves within the bounds of order, purity and reverence. His conception of power is never akin to blind force, but car ries within itself the higher elements of intelli gence and voluntary restraint.