Richard Monckton Milnes Houghton

Richard Monckton Milnes Houghton Poems

Richard Monckton Milnes Houghton Biography

Richard Monckton Milnes, 1st Baron Houghton (19 June 1809 - 11 August 1885) was an English poet and politician. The son of Robert Pemberton Milnes, of Fryston Hall, Yorkshire, and the Hon. Henrietta Monckton, daughter of the fourth Lord Galway, he was born in London. He was educated privately, and entered Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1827. There he was drawn into a literary set, and became a member of the famous Apostles Club, which then included Alfred Lord Tennyson, Henry Hallam, Richard Chenevix Trench, Joseph Williams Blakesley, and others. After taking his degree, Milnes travelled abroad, spending some time at the University of Bonn. From there he went to Italy and Greece, and published in 1834 a volume of Memorials of a Tour in some Parts of Greece, describing his experiences. Milnes was a persistent suitor of Florence Nightingale (who finally refused to marry him), and one of her staunchest supporters along with the statesman Sidney Herbert. But in 1851 Milnes married the Hon. Annabel Crewe (d. 1874). He died at Vichy, and was buried at Fryston. His son, Robert, was created Earl of Crewe in 1895. His apparently almost unsurpassed collection of erotic literature, now in the British Library was known to few in his lifetime. He returned to London in 1837, and was elected to Parliament as member for Pontefract in the Conservative interest. His parliamentary career was marked by much strenuous activity. He interested himself particularly in the question of copyright and the conditions of reformatory schools. He left Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel's party over the Corn Law controversy, and was afterwards identified in politics with Palmerston, who made him a peer in 1863. Literary works His literary career was industrious and cultured, without being exceptionally distinguished. Church matters had always a claim upon him: he wrote a striking tract in 1841, which was praised by Newman; and took part in the discussion about "Essays and Reviews," defending the tractarian position in One Tract More (1841). He published two volumes of verse in 1838, Memorials of Residence upon the Continent and Poems of Many Years, Poetry for the People in 1840 and Palm Leaves in 1844. He also wrote a Life and Letters of Keats in 1848, the material for which was largely provided by the poet's friend, Charles Armitage Brown. Milnes' poetry is meditative and delicate; some of his ballads were among the most popular of their day. His chief distinctions were his keen sense of literary merit in others, and the judgment and magnanimity with which he fostered it. He was surrounded by the most brilliant men of his time, many of whom he had been the first to acclaim. His reputation rests largely on the part he played, as a man of influence in society and in moulding public opinion on literary matters, in connection with his large circle of talented friends. He secured a pension for Tennyson, helped to make Ralph Waldo Emerson known in Britain, and was one of the earliest champions of Algernon Charles Swinburne. He helped David Gray by writing a preface for The Luggie. He was, in the traditional sense, a patron of literature, who never abused the privileges of his position.)

The Best Poem Of Richard Monckton Milnes Houghton

Back Again, Back Again!

Back again, back again!
We are passing back again;
We are ceasing to be men!
Without the strife
Of waning life,
Or weary fears
Of loveless years,--
Without the darkened eye,
Without the paling brow,
Without a pulse of pain,
Out of our maturity,
We are passing now
Back again!
Clap your hands! clap your hands!
Now are broken all the bands
Of dull forms and phantom power,
That could prevent us doing
What joy would wish to do,--
For out of manhood's ruin,
We are growing, hour by hour,
Happy children too!--
From out the din
And storm of sin,
From out the fight
Of wrong and right,
Where the wrong
Is all too strong,
We glide our backward course along:
From out the chilly weather,
In which we laid, of old,
Our hearts so close together,
To keep them from the cold:--
From the folly of the wise,
From the petty war of gain,
From Pleasure's painèd votaries,
We are hasting back again,
Into other, healthier, lands,--
Clap your hands,--
Back again!
Faery fruit! faery fruit!
Can our charmèd hearts be mute,
When they feel at work within
Thine almighty medicine?
Joy through all our hearts is tingling,--
Joy with our life--blood is mingling,--
Before us rise
The dancing eyes,
That cannot speak
Of aught but light,
Unknowing gloom,--
The rounded cheek,
For ever bright
With cool, red, bloom;--
Our faded leaves are closing,
Our petals are reposing
Within their undeveloped stem;--
It is beautiful to see
Archetypes of infancy,
For we are growing like to them.
The wisdom of the common earth,
And reason's servile royalty,
Dust to dust,--the nothing--worth,--
Tread it down triumphantly,
To a just oblivion,--
Freely--springing hearts and pure,
Who are putting on
Consecrated vestiture
Of a new, old, communion!--


Our home! our home!
Our native air,--our brothers' song,
That we have lost so long!
We are worthy now to come,
Where dwelleth the Divine;--
Through the narrow door of Death
Pass;--we breathe eternal breath,--
Father! father! we are thine!

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