A prefatory sonnet opens to the reader the aspirations of the young
author, in which, after the manner of sundry poets, ancient and modern,
he expresses his own peculiar character, by wishing himself to be
something that he is not. The amorous Catullus aspired to be a sparrow;
the tuneful and convivial Anacreon (for we totally reject the
supposition that attributes the [Greek: Eithe lure chale genoimen] to
Alcaeus) wished to be a lyre and a great drinking cup; a crowd of more
modern sentimentalists have desired to approach their mistresses as
flowers, tunicks, sandals, birds, breezes, and butterflies;--all poor
conceits of narrow-minded poetasters! Mr. Tennyson (though he, too,
would, as far as his true love is concerned, not unwillingly 'be an
earring,' 'a girdle,' and 'a necklace,' p. 45) in the more serious and
solemn exordium of his works ambitions a bolder metamorphosis--he wishes
to be--_a river_!
SONNET.
'Mine be the strength of spirit fierce and free,
Like some broad river rushing down _alone_'--
rivers that travel in company are too common for his taste--
'With the self-same impulse wherewith he was thrown'--
a beautiful and harmonious line--
'From his loud fount upon the echoing lea:--
Which, with _increasing_ might, doth _forward flee_'--
Every word of this line is valuable--the natural progress of human
ambition is here strongly characterized--two lines ago he would have
been satisfied with the _self-same_ impulse--but now he must have
_increasing_ might; and indeed he would require all his might to
accomplish his object of _fleeing forward_, that is, going backwards and
forwards at the same time.
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