635. EBB to John Kenyon
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 4, 35–37.
50 Wimpole Street
Saturday– [ca. June 1838] [1]
My dear Mr Kenyon,
The opening stanzas of your poem [2] would charm Criticism into silence, even if she had a little to say. They contain some beautiful & true description, & in flowing sound.–
In the 4th, I do not quite like either of the concluding lines–—‘strengthen hearts yet not deform.’ There is not contrariety—(is there?)—between strength & deformity? and then the ‘sturdier powers’ are the powers of the heart—are they not—and if so, the strengthening of the heart is involved in them, & you have fallen into a pleonasm– Then with regard to the last line, I dont much like the ‘stern’ & the ‘storm’ so near each other. The sound is deformed without being strengthened, by this nearness.
In the 6th, you do not seem to me to carry out your idea with sufficient distinctness. “Hence Too” &c[.] The sense of the preceding stanza shd be continued. Now because Man’s nature is strengthened by storm, you do not “stand & watch” the storm, “with straining eye”– Yes! I see now that you may so mean to express your interest in it– Still, I think that kindling eye (or some similar epithet) would say better what you wish to say. The last line of this stanza; I much admire–
As to the 8th, I would not on any account omit it. How could you think of thinking of doing so?– But—I do not—willingly agree to your proposed alteration of the last lines,—except in the word ‘faithful’ for ‘constant’.– The next
In love, that only dies with breath,
And plucks new force from thoughts of death.
are false, if I may dare to say what appears true to me, as to their sentiment– For if love dies with breath, there would be no plucking of strength from thoughts of death– Were the poem mine, I certainly would try to prevail upon stanzas 8 and 9 to exchange their concluding distichs. I would connect the ‘flickering light’ with the ‘faithful hand’—vainly faithful; and when I had proceeded as far as “the torch is dim” I should think it just the time for exclaiming
“Cease raging Demons of the dark
And spare the light—& spare the bark.”
If it could be managed so, the 10th stanza would begin very naturally “If that brave bark”—and ‘the guardian spirit’ of the next line, would follow the ‘Demons’, according to a philosophical law of Association! vide Hume on contrarieties–
But I must not forget to say that “would rush to tread” &c is a great improvement upon the 2d line of stanza 9.
In stanza 10, I object to the Fates—particularly as the next refers to “how tis doomed above”.
I am not inclined to recall from banishment the stanza about Ebydos [3] – It is certainly desirable to refer to the three figures—but you need not pay a price for it, and are surely right in suspecting the prolonged allusion, of “destroying the unity of impression”. Besides, both ‘the deeper’ & ‘the holier ties’ may, as you observe, have ‘temper’ & ‘logic’ against them. Besides, I have either a confusion of memory, or Musæus or the more modern author of the poem called Hero & Leander, attests the celebration of their marriage. [4] Had not Turner’s picture a Hymen in it, as well as a Cupid?– I think so!––. [5]
Thank you for the great pleasure I have had in reading this poem– Its concluding stanzas are animated & forcible, & leave an impression—& this is as it should be– I would rather not admit the proposed change on the last–
The leaves shall be inserted in the book– The explanation or apology, I like very much—I mean the gracefulness of the manner of it.
As to Jephtha[h] [6] —what I can say of him must be “in a whisper” indeed—& a very low one—so low as to be inaudible even to you. But when I confess that I could not read the whole book through, you may guess what it is!——
Dear Mr Kenyon,
Most truly yours
E B Barrett.
The enclosed note came to us from Torquay this morning.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Huntington Library.
1. This letter falls between the publication of Jephthah in May 1838, and late August, when Findens’ Tableaux went to press.
2. The subject of this letter is “The Greek Wife,” the poem Kenyon was writing for inclusion in Findens’ Tableaux (reprinted, with revisions, in his A Day at Tivoli: With Other Verses, 1849). A comparison of the printed text with EBB’s quotations shows that he made extensive changes before submitting the poem to Miss Mitford.
3. Sic, for Abydos, the point on the shore of the Hellespont from which Leander swam over to meet Hero.
4. The “modern author” was Leigh Hunt, whose “Hero and Leander” was published in 1819. Neither he nor Musæus Grammaticus, the classical author of the legend, mentions any formalization through marriage of the relationship. Kenyon’s poem, through not mentioning Hero and Leander, has parallels with the legend, in that the wife of the title holds aloft a torch to guide her husband’s boat across the Hellespont in a storm; he, like Leander, fails to complete the crossing.
5. “The Parting of Hero and Leander,” by J.M.W. Turner (1775–1851), was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1837. A verse accompanying the painting included the lines “But Love yet lingers on the terraced steep, / Upheld young Hymen’s torch and failing lamp.”
6. Jephthah, and Other Poems, by George Pryme (1781–1868). Pryme, a barrister and political economist, was M.P. for Cambridge (1832–41). The Athenæum, reviewing the poem in the issue of 22 December 1838, apparently agreed with EBB, saying “the images are not so vivid, nor is the passion so deep, or the impulse so strong, as to manifest the afflatus of creative genius.”
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