He would have sympathized with Keble's lines teaching that his fellow-creatures should not
Strive to wind themselves too high For sinful man beneath the sky.
This was probably one of the reasons why he did not like "In Memoriam." He said indeed that he thought it too artistic, too machine-made. He said that he thought Tennyson became gradually altogether too artistic and lost in spontaneity, vigour, and freshness. Yet he himself was a most laborious artist, both in his verse and in his prose. _Omar_ is most carefully elaborated, with correction on correction, and so are the best parts of _Euphranor_. His reasons were really deeper, and went more against the matter than the form. He did not like the early "Idylls of the King." "The Holy Grail" he liked as he had liked the "Vision of Sin." But what moved him to tears was the old-style "Northern Farmer," the "substantial, rough-spun Nature he knew," and "the old brute, invested by the poet with the solemn humour of Humanity like Shakespeare's _Shallow_." Yet even here a "crotchet" cropped up, as appears from the following note:
The enclosed scrap from Notes and Queries reminded me (as probably the writer has been reminded) of your Old Farmer, the only part of which that goes against me is the "canter and canter away" of the last line. I can scarce tell you (as usual with me) why I don't like Doctor Fell; but you know I must be right.
By the by, my old Crabbe in the Parish Register (Burials), says
Bless me! I die--and not a warning giv'n-- With much to do on earth, and _all_ for Heaven: No preparation for my soul's affairs, No leave petitioned for the Barn's repairs, etc.
not very good; and (N.B.) I don't mean it suggested anything in Shakespeare's Northern Farmer--for that may pair off with Shallow.
Again, when it appeared in 1865, he was greatly taken with the "Captain." It was a return to the old personal mood and simple direct depiction of character:
MARKETHILL, WOODBRIDGE, _October 22nd, 1865_.
DEAR MRS. TENNYSON--Talking of ships again, I liked much _The Captain_ in the People's Alfred. Was the last stanza (which I like also) an afterthought?--I think a really _sublime_ thing is the end of Kingsley's "Westward Ho!"--(which I never could read through)--The Chase of the Ships: the Hero's being struck blind at the moment of revenge: then his being taken to _see_ his rival and crew at the bottom of the sea. Kingsley is a distressing writer to me: but I must think this (the inspiration of it) of a piece with Homer and the Gods--which you won't at all.