INTRODUCTORY NOTES In the Second Part of this volume I have collected a number of specimens of poets who were born after the beginning of the nineteenth century, and became conspicuous in the reign of Queen Victoria. Amongst these the first place naturally belongs to John Henry, Cardinal Newman, born 21st February 1801, who, from 1837 onwards to 1896, exercised so potent an influence over a large portion of his countrymen. All his readers know how much of the poet he had in his composition; but of his verse very little save the wellknown hymn, "Lead, Kindly Light," a production of his early life, and the "Dream of Gerontius," which was written in his old age, is generally familiar. I have taken an extract from the latter poem and several of the short pieces which appeared in the "Lyra Apostolica," along with those of others, of which none were more remarkable than that by Richard Hurrell Froude, called "Old Self and New Self." At a later period Newman published his own verses in a separate volume. Froude, I regret to say, died just before the reign of the Queen began, and falls accordingly outside my limit. The extracts from NEWMAN are followed by one from Mrs. ARCher Clive (1801-1873), whose name is closely connected with the commencement of the reign by her poem, "The Queen's Ball," from which I have quoted at some length. She was led to compose it by the accident of a friend having written to her that a hundred and fifty invitations to the first ball given at the palace after the accession of Queen Victoria had been issued to people who were dead. She imagines some of them to have accepted their invitations. The next place belongs to Mrs. MACLEAN, née Letitia Landon (1802-1838), whose merits were very eagerly canvassed both in her lifetime and after her tragical death on the West Coast of Africa had caused a great sensation in the public mind. A man was born about the same time as the illfated L. E. L. who was destined to great and brilliant success in many lines of life. LORD LYTTON (18031873), considered, I believe, that as a poet he would be best remembered by his "King Arthur," but few will share that opinion. The extracts I have made are exclusively taken from the "New Timon" and "St. Stephen's," in both of which he followed the lead of Pope. That of itself is disagreeable to many persons, but I hold that they take a prejudiced view. The "New Timon" contains many brilliant passages, though it is not, as a whole, to be compared with the other poem I have mentioned. "St. Stephen's" is a metrical criticism of the great English orators, from Sir John Eliot |