Outlines of English and American Literature Songs in Many Keys byLong, William J.
In calling attention to the above-named poets, we have
merely indicated a few who seem to be chief; but the judgment is a personal
one, and subject to challenge. The American critic Stedman, in his
Victorian Anthology, recognizes two hundred and fifty singers; of
these eighty are represented by five or more poems; and of the eighty a few
are given higher places than those we have selected as typical. There are
many readers who prefer the Goblin Market of Christina Rossetti to
anything produced by her gifted brother, who place Jean Ingelow above
Elizabeth Barrett, who find more pleasure in Edwin Arnold's Light of
Asia than in all the poems of Matthew Arnold, and who cannot be
interested in even the best of Pre-Raphaelite verse because of its
unreality. Many men, many minds! Time has not yet recorded its verdict on
the Victorians, and until there is some settled criticism which shall
express the judgment of several generations of men, the best plan for the
beginner is to make acquaintance with all the minor poets in an anthology
or book of selections. It may even be a mistake to call any of these poets
minor; for he who has written one song that lives in the hearts of men has
produced a work more enduring than the pyramids.
