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[proximoception]

from Earth's Holocaust, Hawthorne

...Milton's works, in particular, sent up a powerful blaze, gradually reddening into a coal, which promised to endure longer than almost any material of the pile. From Shakespeare there gushed a flame of such marvellous splendor, that men shaded their eyes as against the sun's meridian glory; nor, even when the works of his own elucidators were flung upon him, did he cease to flash forth a dazzling radiance, from beneath the ponderous heap. It is my belief, that he is still blazing as fervidly as ever.

"Could a poet but light a lamp at that glorious flame," remarked I, "he might then consume the midnight oil to some purpose."

"That is the very thing which modern poets have been too apt to do--or, at least, to attempt," answered a critic. "The chief benefit to be expected from this conflagration of past literature, undoubtedly is, that writers will henceforth be compelled to light their lamps at the sun or stars."

"If they can reach so high," said I. "But that task requires a giant, who may afterwards distribute the light among inferior men. It is not every one that can steal the fire from Heaven, like Prometheus; but when once he had done the deed, a thousand hearths were kindled by it."

...Speaking of the properties of flame, methought Shelley's poetry emitted a purer light than almost any other productions of his day; contrasting beautifully with the fitful and lurid gleams, and gushes of black vapor, that flashed and eddied from the volumes of Lord Byron...

Comments

[proximoception.livejournal.com]

This is just the lit-crit portion of a great visionary piece. I'm amazed and gratified Hawthorne is a Shelleyan, I skimmed his notebooks and letters a few weeks ago, when researching Romantics' responses to Romantics, and found no direct references at all. I guess Keats' star hadn't made it onto most charts yet by the 1840s. Or perhaps he had, he's farther from Hawthorne temperamentally than Shelley is. Footnoting Shelley to Shakespeare this way reminds me of their monuments in Westminster Abbey. A bas-relief of Shakespeare is the large centerpiece of the tributes for poets buried elsewhere (those actually buried there basically get their names on flagstones; Hardy's, though among the most recent, oddly is almost entirely effaced, which wouldn't surprise him in the slightest). Above it, at left and right and connected by a scarfy-looking carving, are circles commemorating Keats and Shelley, by implication the only two who might have flamed higher had they lived. I can't find a decent image online.