—
The Corvey Poets Project at the University of Nebraska —
British Poetry of the later Eighteenth and Earlier Nineteenth Centuries
Bibliographical and Contextual Apparatus
Noble, Thomas
Julia; or, Pre-Existent Spirtis. Derby: Pike, [1828].
Descriptive Essay
A Preliminary Bibliographical Comment:
Thomas Noble of Derby produced and published a 10 page narrative poem in 1828 that he named "Julia, or Pre-Existent Spirits." This poem is accompanied by other short and medium length poems on various subjects, including sonnets and cantos. Noble's volume contains about 112 pages of poetry. Each section of the eclectic collection begins with a title and heading (an "argument") summarizing its content. There does not appear to be a single unifying theme running through the collection, although traces (some direct and others indirect) of the ancient doctrine of the pre-existence of spirits can be found periodically. But generally this volume of poetry is very much a document typical of late nineteenth century British Romanticism. Though Noble's skills and world-view are evident from his collection, he does not revolutionize or drastically depart from the norms of his literary period; he does, however, explore the art of poetry and take an interdisciplinary approach to theme.
General Description of Volume:
Noble makes his influences and artistic objectives explicit from the very
beginning. In the "Advertisement" that appears just before the first
narrative section, he qualifies his central theme of pre-existence by appealing
to precedent: he says the doctrine has been possessed in some form by
the Egyptians, the Greeks, and the English. To support this claim, he takes
the time to share extracts about pre-existence from works by Thomas Moore, William
Wordsworth, William Drummond of Hawthornden, as well as a personal letter "lent
to [him] by a lady of [his] acquaintance." Of all the influences that Noble
recognizes, the letter that he mentions last seems to matter most to his actual
composition. It obviously informs his narrative.
Noble's complete collection appears to be influenced generally by early English
Romanticism, Christianity, and Hellenism. For instance, there is this Greek-feeling
comparison drawn between a contemporary scene of desolation (some ruins) and
a "noble youth . . . like the marble model of a god":
Hence let me turn–ungrateful
is the scene.
As when some noble
youth, whose perfect form,
With strength and
beauty and superior soul
Rising to manhood,
full of life and hope,
Deep smitten by
the dart of sudden fate,
Falls—like
the marble model of a god,
In force and vigour
motionless;—so fell
This fabric, ere
destructive Time had rocked
Its deep foundations
or defaced its walls. (21)
The rest of Noble's collection can be characterized as an eclectic body of experimental material (he tries many stanzas and line schemes) that explores a wide range of themes: pre-existence, nature, mind, love, hope, humanity, science, prosperity, cheerfulness, corruption (avarice), history, renovation of man and the earth, etc. Throughout the collection Noble develops his themes in three general ways: 1) by using extended descriptions of nature, some of which turn very rich; 2) by using both high and low characters in long passages of direct address; and 3) by using a high-soaring, didactic voice to stress some concept for society's sake. The descriptions often feel meditative. Again, Wordsworth and the other canonical Romantics have clearly influenced him.
Specific Description of Style:
Noble confesses forthrightly that as a poet he believes that a "richness
of tone in the recurrence of numerous rhymes, where the versus are varied in
the position of their casura," can be achieved, even in English. He supports
his stylistic theory by giving the "Spencerian Stanza" and "Sonnet"
as evidence. It is no wonder then that Noble, throughout his collection, achieves
a "richness of tone" as he "varies" the placement of his
internal punctuation and plays with his art. He also varies his line length,
meter, and rhyme schemes in certain sections to add interest to his otherwise
semi-predictable narratives. Here is a fairly typical line from a passage of
blank verse in Canto II:
While eastward wave the
darkly shaded elms
Contrast this stable line with another series of lines from a later section
in the same collection:
The tears of long-continued
woe
Already cease to
flow :—
The pang of pain
The fever'd brain
Already cease to
rage;
And pale disease
To groan doth cease
And tottering old
age. (106)
So, on a stylistic note, it can be seen from both these passages from Noble's collection that he is no slouch. His collection reflects the work of a poet who is experimenting vigorously with his art, even though he doesn't seem to be experimenting to the same degree with his content. In one section, he tries the sonnet; in another section, he writes in terza rima; one line he slows down, the next he speeds up. Contrast the tempo of the Speaker's voice in Canto II when he says "While eastward wave the darkly shaded elms" with the words of the bird that comforts Julia in section one: "Love, love, so cherish'd–love, so sad a foe! Notice the heavily textured words and letters such as the "w's" and the "l's" in the first line and the speed of monosyllabic words making the phrase "so sad a foe." In each case sound is working with sense and Noble demonstrates his skill and his sensitivity to language while staying with familiar images and themes.
Apart from Noble's decisions to vary stanzas and lines while staying with
standard Romantic themes, he uses frequent apostrophes, skillful patterns of
sound and language, and rich alliteration. Characteristic of most sections of
the collection is the speaker's invocation of the Muse, or if not the muse,
something similar to the muse. Usually, the new speaker invites something outside
the poem to inspire him. In the course of the collection something akin to this
is done repeatedly. Take for example this passage:
O God of Nature, who
hast filled thy works
With love and virtuous
pleasures, grant me peace;
Raise me from want,
and teach my soul Content
And Contemplation,—Science,
and Thyself (18)!
Or this:
Come, Cheerfulness, blithe
daughter of the Spring,
Be thou my Muse
(25);
In each case someone or something existing outside the poem is directly addressed
and invited to pour out a blessing or do something on behalf of the speaker
who is crying out from within the poem. In most cases, the Muse or just the
thing addressed, whether it is the Morning or the Nations of the earth, is asked
to participate in the producing the poem, and therefore, in life itself.
In contrast, however, there are examples where just the opposite seems to be
taking place:
Then, hence desponding
grief,
Hence rankling memory,
sad regret and fear. (25)
Here in Canto II, grief, as though it were a dark being of some kind, is not
asked to impart a blessing but rather simply to be gone. Noble's use of the
device of direct address in the imperative mood (and there are many example
of it) has a Biblical tinge to it. It is reminiscent of Jesus' powerful rebuke
when he sought to resist temptation in the wilderness: "Get thee hence
Satan." In Noble's poem, grief, instead of Satan, is rebuked so that Cheerfulness
can come. In this case, one thing must be commanded to depart before another
can be invited to visit.
In addition to Noble's frequent use of apostrophe and direct address, he employs
pattern in very interesting ways. For instance, here is a cosmic series to evoke
pathos in Canto V:
Could I but burst the
torpid chain of want.
Then whatsoe'er
thy theme;—the heath—the mead—
The murmuring streamlet,
or the boisterous wave—
The wood—the
lake—the mountain—vall[e]y—rock—
The stormy clouds—the
winds—the orbs of heaven—
Or life in all its
forms—or human mind,—
The expanding bosom
and enlightened soul;— (76, 77)
Notice how the pattern in the passage builds to a climax on the wings of sound
and size and tempo and the crescendoing content. The pattern moves from the
heath to the mind and the soul, the mind and the soul being the highest of all,
higher even than the clouds and the orbs of heaven.
Another passage that includes the sort of pattern typical of Noble's craftsmanship
is found in the collection immediately after the section just cited. In it,
Noble attempts to make sound match sense, however, unsuccessfully:
Then, when the SPRING,
as now, with wanton wreaths
Blossoms the boughs,
and o'er the enlivened mead
Scatters light verdure,
scatters tinted flowers
Scatters soft fragrance
on each ambient gale,
Scatters prolific
moisture from the sky (77)
The idea in repeating "scatters" four times was perhaps to spread
the sound around the passage for effect. However, it breaks down because "Scatters"
anchors three of four lines. The word's location at the first of the line draws
attention to it, which is desirable, but capitalizing it and setting it in the
firm first position seems to subtract (or detract) from the overall desired
effect. Instead of the language feeling scattered it feels fixed, manipulated.
But to be fair, perhaps Noble attempts to scatter only one word as opposed to
scattering all four. The one word, not capitalized, hides in the middle of the
line; it feels lost, displaced, or scattered, but it is hard to say whether
this passage is successful or not because, after all, nobody knows for certain
the poet's intentions. In any case, Noble's biggest accomplishment in this collection
may be his interesting use of pattern.
Similar to the sophisticated pattern schemes in Noble's collection (there
is not space or time to develop a full examination of all of them in this descriptive
essay) is his use of small patterns of assonance and consonance, or his alliteration.
For instance, tucked in lines throughout the collection are delicious vowel
phrases like "dingy ridge" and "sandy cavity" as well as
clusters of pure consonance like the soft "s" sounds in
While the soft
notes of Spring, symphonious, seemed (27, 31).
Of particular interest here is the fact that the "o" and "s"
sounds roll the line forward as it is read. The most interesting thing about
the line in terms of the sound may be the slanted sound quality achieved between
the words "Spring" and "seemed," not to mention the plain
fun of reading a rich word like "symphonious" (31).
However, in a passage later in the collection, Noble almost pushes the "s"
sound too far, even though his selecting "sedgy" to suggest the moistness
of rush mud works very well:
The whispering aspens,
and beside the rill
Soften the rustling
of the sedgy rush
Almost to silence
(85).
Ambitious about his art, he probably goes too far, too, with the "w,"
"l," and, "f" sounds in the following lines:
Where winds the Wye its
wildly wand'ring stream, (96)
and
Locked in her lover's;—left
her blushing cheek (67)
In any case, Noble's collection is loaded with alliterative experimentations
and disruptive punctuation, both of which are techniques of the first and finest
English poets. He experiments, then, with traditional patterning, sometimes
finding a sound pattern that works, and sometimes not.
Perhaps ending this section on style and pattern in Noble's collection with
one of my favorite passages would be appropriate and might whet the appetite
of any reader who might wish to know more about Noble's sophisticated attempts
at crossing sound and pattern with descriptive and philosophic sense. Here is
a densely patterned part of one of his long, narrative sentences that uses rhythmic
sounds and words to good effect:
Lost in the umbrageous
vale, whence roofs and boughs
Close mingling,
rise in tiers,— roofs above roofs—
And boughs in rich
perspective clustering spread
Boughs above boughs,
until embraced, they fane, . . .
Mid the thick foliage:
—then, receding hills
Of various forms
romantic—various tints,
That lead the piercing
sight to farther hills,
And these to farther,—
till, more faint and faint,
The pale grey distance
mingles into mist, (33)
Specific Description of Volume:
As illustrated above, most of Noble's collection is richly written but not
terribly profound in terms of its content. One expectation set up by the title
is that this collection may be an exploration of something theological or philosophical,
but instead, the greater part of the collection is in reality typical of the
less meditative romantics. Noble relies heavily on standard tropes and doesn't
do too much more than rehearse the familiar views of the day using the familiar
tropes of the day. For instance, the times and seasons control much of the collection;
birds (doves, no less) act as messengers to love-sick souls; Christian love
stories are told; people sigh, stand on hills, shed tears, grow pensive, look
to clear streams, fall into transport, and walk with Nature hand in hand on
beautiful mornings. Two passages may suffice to show the familiarity of the
tropes used by Noble; both are well written, even interesting, but neither demonstrates
much originality of content.
The cottage clothed with
verdure threw as bright
An image on the
waters ; but, ah where
Was the fond hope,
that in a fairy dream
Seized the reflection,
and, with tints more fair,
Pictured a placid
home by that clear stream? (86)
And:
Instant—or ‘twas
a vision I beheld—
In a blythe HALL
of DERBY'S ancient town,
I saw a scene all
other scences excelle'd;
Where Times and
Space, compell'd,
Seem'd mingled all
in one: (97)
In both passages the tropes are traditional. Yet I selected these passages because
they pick up on ancient tropes that are themselves worth mentioning. The first
passage quoted above plays on the idea found in Plato's Allegory of the Cave.
The reflection is but a shadow of reality. This particular image, to Noble's
credit, apparently speaks of other levels of reality. So, in that sense it is
philosophical, but not in any original or surprising way. The second passage
tropes the tradition among the Hebrews and Greeks (and among imitators since
them) of visionary experience. What is interesting is that so much of this religious
tradition gets into poetry. It is as if those who have visions — seers
and the like — feel that they also must be able to speak about their vision.
In fact, words are said to be given them. Prophets and poets claim the first
step in their obligation is to see and the second is to speak, or to prophesy.
Vision precedes, or accompanies, speech. Noble adapts these tropes but does
not do so in any remarkable way.
Paradoxically, Noble's effort to use the historic tropes and forms of poetry
popular in his day somehow strikes the modern reader as almost fresh. His technical
explorations into language, sound, and pattern make his collection on the whole
worth reading. By contrast, his content only occasionally captivates the interest.
In one section that is of particualr interest, however, Noble examines
the relationships between art an science and art and commerce. In these particular
passages Noble ambitiously attempts to fuse all knowledge, especially science
and economics, with poetry. This fusion struck me as rather interesting, and
as somehow less than expected. Apparently Noble was a man with a broad and inquiring
mind, even if he couldn't seem to shake himself from the sentimentality and
most-used tropes of his times.
Prepared by Scott Stenson, University of Nebraska, December 2004.
© Scott Stenson, 2004.