1635. EBB to Richard Hengist Horne
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 9, 25–28.
[London]
Thursday– [Postmark: 20 June 1844]
Oh .. you are a gnasher of teeth [1] in criticism, I see! You are a lion & a tiger in one, & in a most carnivorous mood over & above. My dear Mr Horne—do you know I cd not help, in the midst of my horror & Panic terror, smiling outright at the naïvetè of your doubt as to whether my rhymes were really meant for rhymes after all. That is the naïvetè of a right savage nature,—of an Indian playing with a tomahawk, & speculating as to whether the white faces had any feeling in their skulls, “quand même!” [2] Know then, that my rhymes are really meant for rhymes—& that I take them to be actual rhymes—as good rhymes as any used by rhymer—& that in no spirit of carelessness or easy writing, or desire to escape difficulties, have I run into them,—but chosen them, selected them, on principle, & with the determinate purpose of doing my best, in & out of this poem, to have them received! What you say of a “poet’s duty”, no one in the world can feel more deeply in the verity of it, than myself. If I fail ultimately before the public, … that is, .. before the people––for an ephemeral popularity does not appear to me worth trying for .. it will not be because I have shrunk from any amount of labour, … where labour cd do anything. I have worked at poetry—it has not been with me reverie, .. but art. As the physician & lawyer work at their several professions, so have I, & so do I, apply to mine—& this I say, only to put by any charge of carelessness which may rise up to the verge of your lips or thoughts. With reference to the double rhyming, [3] it has appeared to me employed with far less variety in our serious poetry than our language wd admit of genially,—and that the various employment of it wd add another string to the lyre of our Terpander. [4] It appeared to me that the single rhymes usually employed, are scarcely as various as they might be,—but that of the double rhymes, the observation is still truer. A great deal of attention, .. far more than it wd take to rhyme with conventional accuracy, … have I given to the subject of rhymes,—& have determined in cold blood, to hazard some experiments. At the same time, I shd tell you, that scarcely one of the ‘Pan’ rhymes might not separately be justified by the analogy of received rhymes, although they have not themselves been received. Perhaps (also) there is not so irregular a rhyme throughout the poem of Pan, as the “fellow” & “prunella” of Pope the infallible. [5] I maintain that my “islands” & “silence” is a regular rhyme in comparison. [6] Tennyson’s “tendons” & “attendence” is more objectionable to my mind than either. [7] You who are a reader of Spanish poetry, must be aware how soon the ear may be satisfied, even by a recurring vowel. I mean to try it. At any rate, there are so few regular double rhymes in the English language, that we must either admit some such trial, or eschew the double rhymes generally—& I for one, am very fond of them, & believe them to have a power, not yet drawn out to its length of capable development,—in our lyrical poetry especially. And now, .. upon all this, .. to prove to you that I do not set out on this question with a minority of one, .. I take the courage & vanity to send to you a note which a poet whom we both admire, [8] wrote to a friend of mine who lent him this very Pan. Mark!—No opinion was asked about the rhymes,—the satisfaction expressed was altogether impulsive .. from within. Send me the note back; & never tell anybody that I showed it to you——it wd appear too vain. Also I have no right to show it. It was shown to me as likely to please me,—& pleased me so much & naturally on various accounts, & not least, from the beauty of the figure used to illustrate my rhymatology, that I begged to be allowed to keep it. So send it back—after reading it confidentially: & pardon me as much as you can, of the selfwill fostered by it.
Why should’nt I (also) say “very pale,” if I please, for all Mr Lockhart? [9] It is very ludicrous, if I may note! I say no more “verys” than other people—& defy all the critics in the world to prove it. Let them count & see. As to Tennyson, his admirer I am, .. & his imitator I am not, as certainly– Nearly everything in the ‘Seraphim’ was written before I ever read one of his then published volumes: and even the “instructing the reader how to say ëd,” [10] was done on the pattern of Campbell’s ‘Theodric’, [11] & not from a later example. In these last volumes of mine, I have eschewed all signs whatever of a diæresis pronouncëd or unpronounc’d, [12] .. so as to give no offence either to myself or other people. But it wd be sheer weakness to throw out a word from your vocabulary, because somebody is pleased to hang his own foolscap on it. Let it hang there! It is not mine, .. & I need not fear the disgrace of it.
About the ‘Pans’ you are right—& I shall thin them as much as I can. For all your kindness about the poem I am also grateful––“very” grateful, if you will let me be so insolent to Mr Lockhart.
You are a bloody critic nevertheless. I remember with pleasure the “I cannot love thee”, [13] .. but the personal poem I meant, had a reference in it to the pictures of her children. You know it wd not do to take for granted that “I cannot love thee” is personal. My recollections of that book were rolled up hastily in a passion of such grief as I never can feel again, .. & as I refer back in thought to them, I can see little but tears & blood. Still, I think that the ‘Creole’ must be the poem I meant. It is in stanzas—& the husband is a mean, dishonored wretch. Mrs Norton has not much force in general. She is feeble nearly uniformly I think, in her long poems,—but this one struck me as having much more power than is usual with her. I like her songs for music .. & shorter impulsive pieces. There is a song somewhere, called “But Thou”—and another poem on “A word” [14] … oh—how little can this indefiniteness help you!–
Yes—it is nonsense to go to Germany & Spain—that is to say .. you had far better not go, .. I think, … & that is to say … I wish you wd not ..... which resolves itself at last into an inane impertinence. I am glad to hear of Browning; and agree with you on the point of Patmore. He is immature quite evidently.
Ever & truly yours
EBB.
P.S.
No—Mr Powell & Rogers are very different .. saving my respect for your criticism. Rogers is unimaginative, & as far as possible (I agree with you) from what is understood to be the inspiration of poets. Still he is an exquisite writer—has a perfect choice of words, & even of thoughts, .. and a tune of melody sweet as a flute. His “Human Life” & “Pleasures of Memory,” [15] if they are not poems in the high sense, (which they are not) are yet beautiful things to read. Now of Mr Powell .... what can be said?–
Perhaps you will think it contradictory—but there is a rhyme used by some writers (inclusive of Orion & Leigh Hunt) which I [16] feel inclined to carp at .. the rhyme of “dawn” & “morn” or the like. My reason is that it is accidentally associated with a conventional vulgarity in the civic pronunciation of “dorn.”
Address: R H Horne Esqr / 5 Fortess Terrace / Kentish Town.
Publication: EBB-RHH, II, 113–130 (in part).
Manuscript: British Library.
1. Cf. Matthew 8:12.
2. “Nevertheless.”
3. i.e., two-syllable rhymes, such as “slumber” and “number” in “The Dead Pan,” lines 15 and 17. See letters 1021 and 1028 for EBB’s earlier comments on her use of double rhymes.
4. A lyric poet and musician of the 7th century B.C. He increased to seven the strings of the lyre, which previously had only four.
5. Pope, Essay on Man (1732–34), IV, 203–204 (see also letter 1242).
6. EBB used this rhyme in lines 2 and 4, as well as in 197 and 199, of “The Dead Pan.”
7. “Amphion” (Poems, 1842), lines 62 and 64.
8. i.e., letter 1252 from RB to Kenyon.
9. EBB quotes from line 61 of “The Dead Pan,” and she alludes to the review of The Seraphim in the September 1840 issue of The Quarterly Review, the text of which can be found in vol. 4, p. 414. John Gibson Lockhart criticized EBB’s repeated use of “very,” citing as an example “very blackly” in “Isobel’s Child,” line 104.
10. EBB misquotes Leigh Hunt’s “The Feast of Violets” (see SD825.1, vol. 3), in which he refers to her use of “ëd.” Lockhart also commented on EBB’s frequent use of “ëd” in the review mentioned in the previous note. EBB had referred to these criticisms earlier in letter 1453.
11. Theodric; a Domestic Tale (1824) by Thomas Campbell formed lot 546 of Browning Collections and is now at ABL (see Reconstruction, A565).
12. EBB emphasized the “ëd” and “’d” by writing them in a bold hand.
13. One of the shorter poems in The Dream. In letter 1626, EBB told Horne about the association of Mrs. Norton’s volume with Bro’s death.
14. The references are to “The Careless Word” (The Undying One, and Other Poems, 1830), which commences “A Word is ringing thro’ my brain,” and “But Thou!” (The Sorrows of Rosalie; and Other Poems, 1829).
15. Published in 1819 and 1792 respectively.
16. Underscored twice.
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