Page:A Commentary on Tennyson's In Memoriam (1920).djvu/19

Rh curiosity regarding the point discussed at the end of the Introduction. I have abstained almost wholly from ‘aesthetic criticism,’ chiefly because, although of course it interests me more than the kind of comment to which this book is restricted; I do not think the two kinds harmonise well.

I ought perhaps to say a few words to those readers who, without objecting on principle to all commentaries on English poetry, may naturally feel doubts about this particular book.

To those who think all commentary on In Memoriam superfluous, I will venture to reply that they can never have studied the poem. If they do so they will certainly find that the meaning of many passages is doubtful, and that a few are extremely obscure; the cause of these defects being sometimes excess in the Tennysonian virtue of conciseness, sometimes an excessive or unfortunate use of periphrasis or decoration.

Others will think that, at any rate, many lines which I have annotated are quite perspicuous. I agree with them; but I believe I have attempted to explain nothing that I had not found misunderstood by myself or someone else; and there are hosts of misapprehensions which I have left unnoticed. The exasperated reader should try the experiment of questioning himself and a few other