The Works of Tennyson :: :: University of Virginia Library

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.