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Archer Gurney letter to Leigh Hunt, September 7, 1857

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Title	Archer Gurney letter to Leigh Hunt, September 7, 1857
Creator	Gurney, Archer, 1820-1887
Date Original	1857-09-07
Description	Concerning his gift of three volumes of his writings to Hunt; denouncements of the younger poets of the day; asks why Hunt does ot publish his ms. plays.
Personal Name Subject	Hunt, Leigh, 1784-1859 Gurney, Archer, 1820-1887
Geographic Subject	England -- Buckingham
Chronological Subject	1850-1860
Type (DCMIType)	Text
Type (AAT)	Correspondence
Type (IMT)	jpeg
Digital Collection	Leigh Hunt Letters
Contributing Institution	University of Iowa. Libraries. Special Collections Dept.
Archival Collection	Brewer-Leigh Hunt Collection
Collection Guide	http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/spec-coll/resources/Brewer-LeighHunt.html
Location	MsL G98h
Rights Management	Educational use only, no other permissions given. This letter is owned by The University of Iowa Libraries Special Collections Department, and is provided here for educational purposes. It may not be reproduced or distributed in any format without written permission of the Special Collections Department.
Contact Information	Contact the University of Iowa Libraries Special Collections Department: lib-spec@uiowa.edu
Height (cm)	17.9
Width (cm)	11.5
Number of Pages	8
Number of Sheets of Paper	2
Digitization Specifications	Scanned with Ricoh Aficio 2335 scanner at 600 ppi, 24-bit color. Archival tiff image available.
Date Digital	2008-07-18
Transcript	Buckingham Monday 7 Sept. ‘57 My dear Sir , Thanks for your kind letter which only reached me this morning, having been forwarded elsewhere by mistake. I shall be truly happy to renew our acquaintance, when an occasion presents itself. Meanwhile, as I am too obscure as an author for my books to be found in [page break] Public Libraries, I have taken the liberty of giving directions for the forwarding of three of them to you. “Songs of the Present,” a collection of songs and narrative poems bearing on the joys and sorrows of the working classes, in which I may refer you to wellnigh the last -“The Death-Sight” -for the expression of my faith on that theme of vital interest to humanity, its ultimate destiny. As you could scarcely find time [page break] to read the whole volume, I would hasten to point to the Squire’s Tale, the Tourist’s Tale, and Burial Rhymes, as illustrating what I have desired to find language for; simple and colloquial even, yet not precisely Wordsworthian. The other collection of poems, “Songs of Early Summer,” lacks unity, totality, and, perhaps, heart, yet in it I would venture to name Mother & Son, p.102, and [page break] again Son & Mother, p.107, as expressions of my faith. You will perceive from the closing section of this volume that I urge war against the younger poets of the day, so-called. Alexander Smith is pronouncing them, perhaps you will think with some injustice, windbags! -But really when I remember the galaxy of power and art and genius which this century has witnessed, Shelley, Keats, Byron, and yourself, and Moore , [page break] and Campbell and Southey and Wordsworth and Coleridge and Scott (whom by the bye, I cannot but think you undervalue -surely he has a free natural burst of song of his own -the Lay of the Last Minstrel has most musical bits) -but when I remember all these and then look at such monstrous notions as “A Life Drama” and conceive the scorn the sadness, with which this savagery would have been contemplated by your own [page break] contemporaries, I must blush for my country and my age. Nothing is valued now but such studied simplicity as Tennyson’s, doubtless charming of its kind, but after all void of natural lyric impulse and of genial life, or else the no less labored extravagance of this younger crew. Each of these styles has its admirers. Only nature is utterly despised -I mean in verse, for to prose these strictures do not apply. The Athe [page break] naeum characteristically, condemned my “Iphigenia at Delphi” as a carefully labored imitation of Goethe, utterly devoid of genius, conceiving that a work must be cold which is not marked by Tennysonian mannerisms or infected extravagance. This “labored work,” as it happens, was positively the fruit of three days! -neither more nor less-not indeed precisely as it stands;-for my rule is to write fast after having well matured a [page break] subject in one’s mind, and then collect at leisure. But this is an illustration of the infatuation of the land. I myself, I should add, consider “Iphigenia” by far my highest inspiration; -but of course we are ill judges of our own creations. Finally, let me inquire why you do not publish your M.S. Plays? Judging from the Legend of Florence they would be a Poetic Find! I especially admire the wonderful ease and freedom of your /---/ rhythm. No room for more . Believe me, my dear Sir, yours most sincerely Archer Gurney
Transcript By	Brewer, Luther

Title	Page1
Relation - Is Part Of	Archer Gurney letter to Leigh Hunt, Sept. 7, 1857
Digital Collection	Leigh Hunt Letters
File Name	g98h_Page1.jpg
Transcript	Buckingham Monday 7 Sept. ‘57 My dear Sir , Thanks for your kind letter which only reached me this morning, having been forwarded elsewhere by mistake. I shall be truly happy to renew our acquaintance, when an occasion presents itself. Meanwhile, as I am too obscure as an author for my books to be found in [page break]

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Archer Gurney letter to Leigh Hunt, September 7, 1857

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