Hester, the Bride of the Islands
A Poem. By . Portland: Bailey & Noyes.
MR. BECKETT is evidently an admirer of Walter Scott; and it is not the least remarkable fact in connection with “ Hester,” that an author with the good sense to propose to himself such a model, disregarding the more elaborate poets of a later date, should have proved himself so utterly unable to follow that model, except in a few phrases, which were quite appropriate as Scott used them, but are ludicrously out of place in his own verse. In adopting the brief lines and irregularly recurring rhymes of Scott, he has taken a hazardous step. The curt lines are excellent with Sir Walter’s liveliness and dash; but when dull commonplaces are to be written, their feebleness would be more decorously concealed by a longer and more conventional dress. The cutty sark, so appropriate when displaying the free, vigorous steps of Maggie Lauder, is not to be worn by every lackadaisical lady’s-maid of a muse. In the moral reflections, with which “ Hester” abounds, there is a most comical imitation of Scott,—as if the poem were written as a parody of “ The Lady of the Lake,” by Mrs. Southworth, or Sylvanus Cobb, Junior.
Mr. Beckett closes some very singular stanzas, entitled an Introduction, with the following lines : —
“ Give it praise, or blame,
Or pass it without comment, as may seem
To you most meet; with me ’tis all the
same.
I hymn because I must, and not for greed
of fame.”
Or pass it without comment, as may seem
To you most meet; with me ’tis all the
same.
I hymn because I must, and not for greed
of fame.”
These lines incline us at first to let Mr. Beckett “pass without comment,” considering, that, as he says, he cannot help writing; but we are finally decided to observe him more closely, inasmuch as he says it makes no difference to him, thus relieving us of the dreadful fear of wantonly crushing some delicate John Keats (always supposing we had him) by our severe censure.
Instead of entering into a philosophical examination of “ Hester,” we shall present some specimen pearls, making our first extract from the 21st page : —
“ The very desert would have smiled
In such a presence! yet despite
Her dimpled cheek, her soft blue eye,
Her voice so fraught with music’s thrill,
The shrewd observer might espy
The traces therein of a will
That scorned restraint, the soul of fire
That slumbered in her tacit sire.”
In such a presence! yet despite
Her dimpled cheek, her soft blue eye,
Her voice so fraught with music’s thrill,
The shrewd observer might espy
The traces therein of a will
That scorned restraint, the soul of fire
That slumbered in her tacit sire.”
“ The traces therein.” Wherein ? Not in the cheek, eye, or voice, clearly ; for it was “ despite. ” all these that he would make the discovery, — they are obstacles, entirely outside of the success. It is necessarily, then, in the “presence,” in which the unthinking desert would have smiled unsuspecting, but in which “the shrewd observer might espy” a good deal that was ominous of trouble. Now it is obvious that the writer intended to refer “ therein ” to the cheek, eye, and voice, a reference from which he barred himself by the word “ despite.” As it happens, luckily for him, there is a word to refer to, so that his grammatical salvation is secured ; but the result is sad nonsense.
Page 23,—
“ Indeed, it was their chief delight,
When combed the far seas feather-white,
To steer out on the roughening bay
With leaning prow and flying spray,
And gunnel ready to submerge
Itself beneath the flashing surge!”
When combed the far seas feather-white,
To steer out on the roughening bay
With leaning prow and flying spray,
And gunnel ready to submerge
Itself beneath the flashing surge!”
Page 28,—
“ nor gave
He heed to aught on land or wave;
As if some kyanized regret
Were in his heart,” etc,, etc.
He heed to aught on land or wave;
As if some kyanized regret
Were in his heart,” etc,, etc.
“ Kyanized regret ” is good, as Polonius would say : but we would humbly suggest that Mr. Beckett substitute, in his next edition, “ Burnettized,” as even better, if that be possible.
Page 72,—
“ in hope, perchance
(Like arrant knight of old romance),
That some complacent circumstance
Would end her curiosity.”
(Like arrant knight of old romance),
That some complacent circumstance
Would end her curiosity.”
Page 94,—
Thereafter, she but knew the charm
Of resting on her lover’s arm,
And listening to his voice elate,
As he betimes went on to state
The phases in his own strange fate,
Since last they met.”
Of resting on her lover’s arm,
And listening to his voice elate,
As he betimes went on to state
The phases in his own strange fate,
Since last they met.”
Page 100. — Speaking of “ those of thoughtful mood,” he says,—
“ With whom I oft have whiled away
The dusky hour upon the deep,
Which most men wisely give to sleep.”
The dusky hour upon the deep,
Which most men wisely give to sleep.”
There is in this last line a dark, grim, sardonic appreciation of the advantages which common minds have over those that, like the poet’s own, have to endure the splendid miseries of genius,—a dark moodiness, like that of a tame Byron remorsefully recalling a wild debauch upon green tea,— that is deliciously funny.
Page 230. — The heroine, who is less poetical by far than her rough servitor, says,—
“ Carl! not for all the golden sand
Of famed Pactolus, would I hurt
Thy feelings; 'tis my wont to blurt
My humor thus.”
Of famed Pactolus, would I hurt
Thy feelings; 'tis my wont to blurt
My humor thus.”
Page 298. — The hero, who is hardly more romantic than the heroine, has married his own sister : —
“ Lord Hubart gazed with steady eye
And arms still folded, on old Carl —
' Here is, i' faith, a pretty snarl
To be unwound’—but his reply
Was cut short,” etc,, etc.
And arms still folded, on old Carl —
' Here is, i' faith, a pretty snarl
To be unwound’—but his reply
Was cut short,” etc,, etc.
In fact, the great objection to Lord Hubart, as may be inferred from the abovequoted passage, is, that he is hopelessly vulgar. We are loath to say so, because of our respect for English aristocracy; but English aristocracy, truth compels us to observe, cuts no great figure on our American stage or in our American literature.
In short, this is a very silly book. It abounds in trite moralizing, for instances of which we will merely refer the reader to pp. 65, 131, and 299. The author remarks exultingly, in his Introduction, that his is comparatively an uncultivated mind. We can only say, we should think so! Ignorance is plentiful everywhere, but it really seems as if it were reserved for some of our American writers to display in its finest specimens ignorance vaunting its own deficiencies. There is a great deal of nonsense talked about “ uncultivated minds”: some men are eminent in spite of being uncultivated; but no man was ever eminent because he was uncultivated. Some instances of a lamentable misuse of language in “Hester” we give below.
Page 16,—
“ They would have won implicit sway.”
Page 53,—
“ By the nonce! ”
Evidently thinking of the phrase, “for the nonce,”—meaning, for the occasion. In the text, “ by the nonce ” is an oath !
Page 71,—
“ And he some squire of low behest.”
Page 221,—
“ and when is won
At last the longed-for rubicon.”
At last the longed-for rubicon.”
Page 256, — the use of the word “ denizens,”
Page 262,—
“None may their evil doing shirk!
That wrong, in any shape, will bring,
Or soon or late, its meted sting.”
That wrong, in any shape, will bring,
Or soon or late, its meted sting.”
Page 313,—
“ as gnats, which sometimes sting
Their life away when rankled.”
Their life away when rankled.”
Another fault is the senseless use of certain words and phrases, which a good writer uses only when he must, Mr. Beckett always when he can. We give without comment a mere list of these : — maugre, ’sdeath, eke, erst, deft, romaunt, pleasaunce, certes, whilom, distraught, quotha, good lack, well-a-day, vermeil, perchance, hight, wight, lea, wist, list, sheen, anon, gliff; astroll, what boots it ? malfortunes, ween, God wot, I trow, emprise, duress, donjon, puissant, sooth, reck, bruit, ken, eld, o’ersprent, etc. Of course, such a word as “ lady ” is made to do good service, and “ye” asserts its well-known superiority to “ you.” All this the author evidently considers highly meritorious, although the words are entirely unsuitable. His notion seems to be, that these are poetical words, and the way to write poetry is to take all the exclusively poetical words you can find. The occasional attempt to make his verses familiar and natural by the use of such abbreviations as “I've ” or “can’t” is as much a failure as the effort of an awkward man in a ball-room to make everybody think him at his ease by forcing an unhappy smile and a look of preternatural buoyancy.
From the beginning to the end of “ Hester,” there is one unerring indication of an uncultivated mind and an unpractised pen. This is the writer’s fondness for well-worn phrases, which authors of a severer taste have long discarded as suited only to the newspapers, but which Mr. Beckett has picked up with eager delight, and, having distributed them liberally throughout the poem, contemplates with a complacency to be matched only by his satisfaction with the success of his expedients for filling out his rhymes, some of which are certainly ingenious and startling.
The plot is a jumble of improbabilities, to which we would gladly attend, for it passes even the liberal bounds of poetic license, but we have already spent all the time we can upon the New Poem, and we must decline (in Mr. Beckett’s own impressive language) any further
“ to distend the tale.”