MILTON.
My Alcaics are not intended for
Horatian Alcaics, nor are Horace's Alcaics
the Greek Alcaics, nor are his Sapphics,
which are vastly inferior to Sappho's, the Greek
Sapphics. The Horatian Alcaic is perhaps
the stateliest metre in the world except the
Virgilian hexameter at its best; but the Greek
Alcaic, if we may judge from the two or three
specimens left, had a much freer and lighter
movement: and I have no doubt that an old
Greek if he knew our language would admit
my Alcaics as legitimate, only Milton must
not be pronounced Milt'n.
αντλην επει κε ναος εμβα
(Alcæus).
Is that very Horatian? I did once begin an
Horatian Alcaic Ode to a great painter, of
which I only recollect one line:
“Munificently rewarded Artist.”
O mighty-mouth'd inventor of harmonies,
O skill'd to sing of Time or Eternity,
God-gifted organ-voice of England,
Mr. Calverley attacked the “an” in “organ”
as being too short, forgetting that in the few
third lines of the stanzas left by Alcæus this
syllable is more than once short.
μελιχρον, αυταρ αμφι κορσα
again:
ω Βυκχι, φαρμακον δ' αριστον.
Look at Sappho's third line in the only
Alcaic left of hers:
αιδως κε σ' ου κιχανεν οππατ-
Besides, I deny that the “an” in “organ voice”
is short. Some would prefer
God-gifted August Voice of England.
“An” must be long by position. In
το δ' ενθεν: αμμες δ' αν το μεσσον
(Alcæus)
is
ες δ' short?
Milton, a name to resound for ages;
Whose Titan angels, Gabriel, Abdiel,
Starr'd from Jehovah's gorgeous armouries,
Tower, as the deep-domed empyrëan
Rings to the roar of an angel onset—
Me rather all that bowery loneliness,
The brooks of Eden mazily murmuring,
And bloom profuse and cedar arches
Charm, as a wanderer out in ocean,
Where some refulgent sunset of India
Streams o'er a rich ambrosial ocean isle,
And crimson-hued the stately palm-woods
Some would prefer also in my line
And crimson-hued the stately palm-woods
“
those stately palm-woods.” I do not agree
with them, and I think that an old Greek
would bear me out.
The before
st is long, I
declare.
Whisper in odorous heights of even.