" It will be noticed that his
prose falls into a kind of tipsy hexameter. The attempt in England at
that time failed, but the controversy to which it gave rise was so far
useful that it called forth Samuel Daniel's "Defence of Ryme" (1603),
one of the noblest pieces of prose in the language. Hall also, in his
"Satires," condemned the heresy in some verses remarkable for their
grave beauty and strength.
The revival of the hexameter in modern poetry is due to Johann Heinrich
Voss, a man of genius, an admirable metrist, and, Schlegel's sneer to
the contrary notwithstanding, hitherto the best translator of Homer. His
"Odyssey" (1783), his "Iliad" (1791), and his "Luise" (1795), were
confessedly Goethe's teachers in this kind of verse. The "Hermann and
Dorothea" of the latter (1798) was the first true poem written in modern
hexameters. From Germany, Southey imported that and other classic metres
into England, and we should be grateful to him, at least, for having
given the model for Canning's "Knife-grinder." The exotic, however,
again refused to take root, and for many years after we have no example
of English hexameters. It was universally conceded that the temper of
our language was unfriendly to them.
It remained for a man of true poetic genius to make them not only
tolerated, but popular. Longfellow's translation of "The Children of the
Lord's Supper" may have softened prejudice somewhat, but "Evangeline"
(1847), though encumbered with too many descriptive irrelevancies, was
so full of beauty, pathos, and melody, that it made converts by
thousands to the hitherto ridiculed measure.
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