Swinburne's cry of despair,
Thou has conquered, O pale Galilean; the world has grown gray with thy breath; We have drunken of things Lethean, and fed on the fullness of death,[Footnote: Hymn to Proserpine.]
show that in a revulsion from the asceticism of the puritan, no less than in a revulsion from the stupidity of the plain man, it may become easy for the poet to carry his carpe diem philosophy very far. His talisman, pure love of beauty, must be indeed unerring if it is to guide aright his
principle of restlessness
That would be all, have, see, know, taste, feel, all
[Footnote: Pauline.]
The puritan sees, with grim pleasure, that an occasional poet confesses that his sense of beauty is not strong enough to lead him at all times. Emerson admits this, telling us, in The Poet, that although the singer perceives ideals in his moments of afflatus which
Turn his heart from lovely maids,
And make the darlings of the earth
Swainish, coarse, and nothing worth,
these moments of exaltation pass, and the singer finds himself a mere man, with an unusually rich sensuous nature,
Eager for good, not hating ill;
On his tense chords all strokes are felt,
The good, the bad, with equal zeal.
It is not unheard-of to find a poet who, despite occasional expressions of confidence in the power of beauty to sustain him, loses his courage at other times, and lays down a system of rules for his guidance that is quite as strict as any which puritans could formulate. Wordsworth's Ode to Duty does not altogether embody the aesthetic conception of effortless right living. One may, perhaps, explain this poem on the grounds that Wordsworth is laying down principles of conduct, not for poets, but for the world at large, which is blind to aesthetic principles. Not thus, however, may one account for the self-tortures of Arthur Clough, or of Christina Rossetti, who was fully aware of the disagreeableness of the standards which she set up for herself. She reflected grimly,
Does the road wind uphill all the way?
Yes, to the very end!
Will the day's journey take the whole long day?
From morn till night, my friend.
[Footnote: Uphill.]