Eugene Lee-Hamilton - Life and Works - Analysis

Analysis

Lee-Hamilton is located firmly in the tradition of shorter Victorian verse; it is in the narrative and dramatic form that Lee-Hamilton’s strengths lie, most especially in the dramatic sonnet. The poet draws most especially upon the work of Robert Browning, but he further refines the art of the dramatic monologue. In contrast to his illness, there is a restless imagination to his sonnets. In particular Imaginary Sonnets (1888) draws upon a wide range of historical, mythic and imaginary figures; the programme of the sequence is that all of the sonnets are spoken by a particular person at a particular time. Philip Hobsbaum (in Metre, Rhythm and Verse Form) suggests that Lee-Hamilton’s Sonnets of the Wingless Hours (1894) is the only Victorian sonnet sequence that can compare to Gerard Manley Hopkins. Lee-Hamilton’s story telling abilities are displayed in the gripping and suspenseful longer poems of collections such as the New Medusa (1882), narratives and dramatic monologues that explore the darker side of life.

Like Robert Browning, Lee-Hamilton’s works are concerned with the rougher edges of humanity; lust, jealousy, and fear dominate, rather than love. The shadowy edges between religion and atheism, sanity and madness, love and hate, are what seem to fascinate the poet. Certain motifs are used repeatedly in pursuit of depicting these states, submersion in water, being buried in the earth, being shackled, the conflict between body and mind, murderous female archetypes such as the gorgon, and male archetypes such as the madman or the murderous lover. Lee-Hamilton has an unfortunately greater tendency than Robert Browning towards the morbid and the grotesque. Too often, Lee-Hamilton shows us an image or plot that loses force because it lacks restraint.

His greatest works are his sonnets, and his greatest asset his technical ability. Lee-Hamilton condensed the dramatic monologue into a sonnet format, and used the short traditional format to add power to his poetry. The better sonnets are concise and restrained in their construction.