"Blown fields and flowerful closes, Swinburne - "A MATCH." "The tray day's ending followed the gray day Through the blank window's space, like ghosts astray Do they return from the far starry sphere To celebrate perchance some majestic rite Some yearning soul's outcry of pain to hear? And when the awful story has been told Will priest and sinner vanish on the night?" "O love, turn from the unchanging sea, and gaze Down these gray slopes upon the year grown old A-dying 'mid the autumn-scented haze That hangeth o'er the hollow in the wold, Where the wind-hitten ancient els infold Gray church, long barn, orchard and red-roofed stead Built in dead days for men a long while dead." "O hearken, hearken: through the afternoon The gray tower sings a strange old tinkling tune, Sweet, sweet and sad the tolling year's last breath Too satiate of life to strive with death." William Morris "EARTHLY PARADISE." CONCLUSION. It may be rather difficult to arrive at any absolute conclusion in our study of the lyrics of these two ages; the lyric itself varies so in form, subject, and mood, and its scope is so very broad. In my comparative study I have tried to quote characteristic lyrics, and they must necessarily represent many others of their own class too numerous to be noted here. Had the study been less conprehensive, it would be easier to make definite and certain statements regarding the differences between the lyrics of these important ages. I believe, however, that from even this incomplete study, the following conclusions may be stated which will apply in general to all of the above named classes of English lyrics. 1. The scope of subjects has broadened in the Victorian Age. This is due naturally to the greater complexity of Victorian interests. The social and economic subjects were not touched upon by the Elizabethans; the questions of faith and doubt were never raised. 2. The Victorian lyric is more introspective than the This is due to the pronounced scientific and Elizabethan. |