After
dinner, Campbell read to us a discourse of his upon English poetry,
and upon some of the great poets. There are always signs of a poet and
critic of genius in all he does, often encumbered by too ornate a
style."
Campbell's best work was done between 1798 and 1810. Within that period
were published 'The Pleasures of Hope' (1799), 'Gertrude of Wyoming'
(1809), and such other shorter poems as "Hohenlinden," "Ye Mariners of
England," "The Battle of the Baltic," and "O'Connor's Child." His
"Ritter Bann," a reminiscence of his sojourn abroad (1800-1), was not
published till later; both it and "The Last Man" were published in the
'New Monthly Magazine', during the period of his editorship. An
excellent judge of verse, he collected 'Specimens of the British Poets'
(1819), to which he added a valuable essay on poetry and short
biographies. His 'Theodoric' (1824), 'Pilgrim of Glencoe' (1842), and
Lives of Mrs. Siddons, Petrarch, and Shakespeare added nothing to his
reputation.
The judgment of contemporary poets in the main agreed with Coleridge's
estimate of Campbell's work.
"There are some of Campbell's lyrics," said Rogers ('Table-Talk',
etc., pp. 254, 255), "which will never die. His 'Pleasures of Hope' is
no great favourite with me. The 'feeling' throughout his 'Gertrude' is
very beautiful." Wordsworth also thought the 'Pleasures of Hope'
"strangely over-rated; its fine words and sounding lines please the
generality of readers, who never stop to ask themselves the meaning of
a passage.
Pages:
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135