The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (1907–21).
Volume XIII. The Victorian Age, Part One.
§ 38. F. T. Palgrave
It is probable—though it will be rather unfair—that Palgrave’s name will always be thought of rather as that of a dispenser—a “promus of elegancies”—in poetry than as that of a poet. The goodness of The Golden Treasury is certainly extraordinary; it is not rash to call it unmatched. No such epithets could be applied to the compiler’s own verse, though this is not by any means contemptible. Intimate friend as he was of Tennyson, his shorter pieces are Wordsworthian rather than Tennysonian. But it would be a pity if the longer Visions of England ceased to be read. In the first place, they were one of the earliest expressions of that historical-patriotic poetry of which much has been produced since; and which, while some of it has been good, has certainly done good, even in its weaker examples. In the second, the book, though there are few “jewels five words long” in it, shows a poetic imagination much superior to the poetic expression with which it is united.