As I have noted before, there are times during the year when dwelling poetically in the 1890s is entirely appropriate. I am not one of those who feels that certain types of poetry have become "out-dated." The word "progress" may (alas!) apply to the world at large, but it does not apply to poetry. Certain things were done better in the 1890s (and at the turn of the 19th century) than in any other era of poetry, before or since. We needn't give them up.
Today's news of the world? Or the dreamy, twilit world of the 1890s? No contest.
Ford Madox Brown, "Carrying Corn" (1854)
Autumn
There is so little wind at all,
The last leaves cling, and do not fall
From the bare branches' ends; I sit
Under a tree and gaze at it,
A slender web against the sky,
Where a small grey cloud goes by;
I feel a speechless happiness
Creep to me out of quietness.
What is it in the earth, the air,
The smell of autumn, or the rare
And half reluctant harmonies
The mist weaves out of silken skies,
What is it shuts my brain and brings
These sleepy dim awakenings,
Till I and all things seem to be
Kin and companion to a tree?
Arthur Symons, The Fool of the World and Other Poems (1906).
Although this may perhaps be said of the entire poem, I think the lines "the rare/And half reluctant harmonies/The mist weaves out of silken skies" capture the 1890s mood in a nutshell. However, come to think of it, "these sleepy dim awakenings" is not far behind.
George Mason, "The Harvest Moon" (1872)
Harvest Moon
Thoughtful luminous harvest moon, as I walk,
The rich and sumptuous night, the procession of trees
Under the moon; the stream's babbling talk;
One star on the eastern ridge hung low on the sea's
Border unseen; a rose-grey shade in the west,
Faded, a petal of sunset, and absolute rose;
Crickets chirp, the sounds of day are at rest;
Under the harvest moon, one by one goes
The austere procession of trees, that walk as I walk.
Arthur Symons, Ibid.
As I have mentioned on another occasion, "grey" is one of Symons's favorite words (together with "twilight"). Thus, it is fitting to find this pairing in line 5: "a rose-grey shade in the west." The poets of the Nineties often used repetition to achieve a sort of lulling, murmurous, dreamlike -- and (of course!) melancholic -- atmosphere. Thus, Symons follows "a rose-grey shade" with "a petal of sunset, and absolute rose." (An aside: "A petal of sunset" is very nice in and of itself.) Likewise, we have "thoughtful luminous harvest moon" (line 1), "under the moon" (line 3), and "under the harvest moon" (line 8), as well as the repetitions of "as I walk" (lines 1 and 9) and "procession of trees" (lines 2 and 9).
John Everett Millais, "The Vale of Rest" (1858)
