The Moon And Sixpence 2.4

Sometimes aman survives a considerable time from an era in which he had his place into onewhich is strange to him, and then the curious are offered one of the mostsingular spectacles in the human comedy. Who now, for example, thinks of GeorgeCrabbe? He was a famous poet in his day, and the world recognised his geniuswith a unanimity which the greater complexity of modern life has renderedinfrequent. He had learnt his craft at the school of Alexander Pope, and hewrote moral stories in rhymed couplets. Then came the French Revolution and theNapoleonic Wars, and the poets sang new songs. Mr. Crabbe continued to writemoral stories in rhymed couplets. I think he must have read the verse of theseyoung men who were making so great a stir in the world, and I fancy he found itpoor stuff. Of course, much of it was. But the odes of Keats and of Wordsworth,a poem or two by Coleridge, a few more by Shelley, discovered vast realms ofthe spirit that none had explored before.

有时候一个人早已活过了他享有一定地位的时期，进入了一个他感到陌生的新世纪，这时候人们便会看到人间喜剧中一幅最奇特的景象。譬如说，今天还有谁想得到乔治·克莱布①呢？在他生活的那一时代，他是享有盛名的，当时所有的人一致承认他是个伟大的天才，这在今天更趋复杂的现代生活中是很罕见的事了。他写诗的技巧是从亚历山大·蒲柏②派那里学习来的，他用押韵的对句写了很多说教的故事。后来爆发了法国大革命和拿破仑战争，诗人们唱起新的诗歌来。克莱布先生继续写他的押韵对句的道德诗，我想他一定读过那些年轻人写的风靡一时的新诗，而且我还想象他一定认为这些诗不堪卒读。当然，大多数新诗确实是这样子的。但是象济慈同华兹华斯写的颂歌，柯勒律治的一两首诗，雪莱的更多的几首，确实发现了前人未曾探索过的广阔精神领域。