His great poems are
often like a prayer accompanied by the subdued tones of a mighty organ.
Nothing foul or ignoble can be found in his verse. He has the lofty ideals
of the Puritans.
ENGLISH LITERATURE OF THE PERIOD
As we saw in the preceding chapter, WORDSWORTH and COLERIDGE at the close
of the last century began to exert a new influence on literature.
Wordsworth's new philosophy of nature (p. 99) can be traced in the work of
Bryant. The other poets of this age belong to the romantic school. BYRON
(1788-1824), the poet of revolt against the former world, shows the same
influences that manifest themselves in the American and the French
Revolution. He voices the complaints, and, to some extent, the aspirations
of Europe. He shows his influence in Fitz-Greene Halleck's _Marco
Bozzaris_. Shelley, who also belongs to the school of revolt, has a
peculiar position as a poet of ethereal, evanescent, and spirit-like
beauty. He is heard in the voice of the West Wind, the Cloud, the unseen
Skylark, the "Spirit of Night," and "the white radiance of Eternity."
Bryant's call in _The Evening Wind_ (1829) to
"... rouse
The wide old wood from his majestic rest,
Summoning from the innumerable boughs
The strange, deep harmonies that haunt his breast,"
may even have been suggested by Shelley's _Ode to the West Wind_ (1819)
"Make me thy lyre, even as the forest is:
What if my leaves are falling like its own?
The tumult of thy mighty harmonies
Will take from both a deep autumnal tone.
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