University of Northern Iowa

Matthew Arnold's Landscapes Author(s): Ferris Lockwood Source: The North American Review, Vol. 147, No. 383 (Oct., 1888), pp. 473-474 Published by: University of Northern Iowa Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25101640 . Accessed: 08/04/2013 12:23
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NOTES AND COMMENTS.

all little godkins, P. S.?For go in ? myself myself my my my my my my me me me me me me me the omitted words are supplied. Where

473
do they

me

me

me

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
IV. MATTHEW ARNOLD'S LANDSCAPES. Arnold's in the June Review article on Matthew is Mr. Stoddard's poetry 8-s suggesting the general characteristics of Arnold's in this de work admirable a particular A few words concerning phase of his poetic art may be of partment. in poetry has always to me The subject of landscape portrayal seemed interest. than it deserves in view of to occupy a less important place in study and criticism to it. the interest and value belonging in the history of English Since that movement may be said to poetry?which and to have culmiuated with Words worth have beguu with James Thompson when Nature took a distinct place of her own as a subject, cne is always interested a poet assumes toward Nature, and bow he deals with to ask what attitule her. scenes that I wish to speak, treatment of particular of Arnold's It is, however, of nature that he may have held. He is rather than of any larger philosophy a natural his poem, and very fond of furnishing setting for the human element.of nowhere does he show himself a timer artist than m some of these brief but vivid " com in pictorial His success here is largely due to what art we call pictures. more all element of art sometimes much than is position"?a important literary realized. not only to perceive It is given to the imaginative clearly and feel insight of a scene, but to discern upon what, pecu the beauty and the power intensely There results from this a process of selecting and liarly, these qualities depend. or emphasizing or rejecting of subordinating this, of heightening arranging, that, its unioy, shall give a sharp, clear of the w?ic?, while impression preserving It is the lack of this, for example, characteristics of a scene. that makes Thom son's descriptions and loving as they are?so of natural tedious, scenery?careful in effectiveness and so lacking ; they show little sense of the relative values of the that go to make Not a little of the charm of Arnold's elements up the picture. to thus briefly the beauty of a but clearly suggest p< etry is due to his power scene by means of a few vigorous, The vital meaning of all such telling touches. statement!* as the foregoing lies along the liue of illustration, and there is space in this field. Aside for one or two examples work from that vague of Arnold's and indescribable charm that must always belong to any imaginative rendering by so true a poetic genius as was Arnold's, aside, too, from the beauty of diction ana meter, sense how much of the force of the pictures depends upon this arcistic an unerring with and unfaltering the attention wmch, touch, fixes upon the salient features of the scene, and at the same time gives to each its proper as part of the picture. Far, far from here, The Adriatic in a warm bay breaks the green Illyrian hills ; and there Among The sunshine in the happy glens is fair ; And by the sea, and in the brakes, The grass is cool, the sea-side air * * * and fresh, Buoyant ? Cadmus and Harmon?a. vol. cxLVii.?ko. 383. 32 value

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474

THE NORTH AMERICAN

REVIEW.

The sea is calm to-night. Tne tide is full, the mooa lies fair the straits .?on the French coast the light Upon Gleams and is gone ; the cliffs of England stand, and vast, out in the tranquil bay. Glimmering ?Dover The sandy spits, the shore-lock'd sea ; Melt into open moonlit The soft Mediterranean breaks At my feet, free. lakes, Beach.

the fields of corn and vine. Dotting the huge, gnarl'd Like ghosts, olives that lovely mountain-line 1 Behind, While, by the strand, its glistening houses white, Cette, with beach away Curves with the curviag To where the lighthouse beacons bright Far in the bay.

stand.

?A

Southern

Night.

Ferris

Lockwood.

V.
THE NATIONAL CONFERENCE OF CHARITIES AND CORRECTIONS. even in these altruistic times of ours, to find four It is something noteworthy, from thousands of miles apart to hundred busy men and women coming together in conference of social science. upon the most practical spend a week questions " 4* ? een said, fu*ed wit? social devotion" If the most consum is, as has morality that flower was seen in fullest bloom in Buffalo mate fl >wer of our civilization," during the first and second weeks of July. remarked in this conference that were It was speakers by one of the to como to life among us, no chemical of the time of Plato an ancient Greek s~>astonish him as would Laura Bridgman. would marvel science, with Physical so marvelous as the moral and intellectual has effected nothing all its progress, been wrought in the last two have which miracles by Christian philanthropy generations. like this, being without It is often said that conferences entirely legislative or judicial power, are a vain show, a waste of words and feeling with no result No error could be greater The educating and illuminating worth mentioning. to legislation was given A noticeable is great. power of such a congress impulse held in Washington in 1886, and Johns Hopkins conference, by the thirteenth on Charity felt its influence so far as to establish a lectureship Organi University in these conferences and women who gather The men zation and kindred topics. of small are not mere theorize? s, nor are they simply officials of public institutions of them are actual workers in charity The majority intellect. culture and narrow or in penology, who are giving special study, not only to their own thorough in a spirit entirely social questions subjects, investigating topics, but to all kindred as well as human. scientific at one of the meetings, is truly No philanthropy, indeed, as was observed as none is truly scientific and not humane. That phy humane and not scientific, * I would kill them all off," was no less unsci sician of repute who said of idiots,

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