ALICE MEYNELL.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 17633, 9 December 1922, Page 13

ALICE MEYNELL.

iAWRESPmrr. „„ «rfflt hjkm.") rsiso.) ffriters with whom «Hy « ssocia r te 1 old e ll was one of them, delicate, fragrant, to give n ia .t the doer was an , inevitable ohanges exquisite piece of 7 name suggested ames do, successful winter case not a r, foiling the expec;rTime. Yet it is m since her first jeaied, to delight h * nd to if-? 8 h ! r rhom anthologist* ril . And ind.*d a that volume tot K»try with a new iiarp, who was as sonnet as anybody, olxer or more beauclass than "Kelassetti, from whom , as one of the t..ree ritten by women, thee; and, tired yet i»t lari. in all d»ind.in the blue Hea*»go of a song, fairest thought* that it of thee waits, hid«t«t eom« in eight; -tfa. whole daylong. to ok,w each difficult M to th» long watch * must loose apart, aiment laid away—that eomes with the ktheieu to thy heart, j lonnets of hers are ithology, "Sonnets y." In that first »poignnnt "Letter Own Old Age": the bnght life was the day was clodded. II regrets is crowded, •oice bhat by sheer ttention and suguch it was difficult Meynell, however, prolific writer, but one of those poets irity almost at ono w at any rate gave The collected edijlume of only 117 je type with ample ie show in her art >, if indeed any adearly work. The (tout cannot have circumstances. She figuratively, in a seem to have had iragement to give e. Her sister was among as a painter :. Her brother-in--1 Sr William Butml L and passionate English lone[upa nuisance to p|||and was Wilaorriter who drew ed' "Merry Engiton as Cardinal nsoni'Hilaire-Bel-•e, Katherine ere,dTth, who was not ised her publicity, mosphere of rare eciation- and sinan. That'she did have-been due to j'of temperament, ispiration, but it , and execution id regulated by a tidlousness. ■ She .write slowly and fly. ■ One does not t the" rush' of spon-n-handed largesse of mino# faults, t, their thoughts, body of Verse in is.'oombined with . Craftsmanship.' pirit. Her poems e\ that is exquis--86 a fragrance all 'personification of auty walking in a Mfumea. There is Detain shepherdess he comparison ig* J; emotional, and lerjielf, you think, own beauti-t.-ttrr Afflgfct-

8J» keapa thenn in -tig myaand; writing the Mey- . oblovor of a crrfcic ,^ t Q '■ chips en '

palms themselves bear through the centuries. "The Elizabethan poetry is the j apple blossom, fine and fragrant; the I seventeenth century the apple, fragrant I and rich; The change from the six- ' teenth' century to the seventeenth is a process, K while that from the' seventeenth to the eighteenth is a catastrophe." Things of the imagination and the spirit were what she most valued. She excluded Gray's "Elegy" from her anthoiogy of English verse because she deemed it deficient in imaginative content. A tribute to Alice Meynell would not be complete without a reference to the relations between her and her husband and Francis Thompson. When he sent manuscripts to "Merry England" Thompson was in London's depths—penniless, in rags, and in the grip of the drug habit. Wilfrid Meynell put the manuscripts aside for some months, and when he read them and realised their value, could not get into touch with the poet. When at last Thompson was found, it was a strange and pitiable figure that was induced to visit the editor. Thompson was i"a waif of a man," "more ragged and unkempt than the average beggar, with no shirt beneath his coat, and bare feet in broken shoes.'' When Mr Meynell remarked to him that he must have had access to manyibooks to write his article On Paganism, Thompson replied that he had none by him Bave .aSschylus and Blake. , He had been using a public library until his poverty-stricken appearance caused him to be turned away. How the Meynelkv gradually overcame the poet's shyness, took him to their home, saw that he was nursed back to health, encouraged him to write, and were father and mother and brother and sister to him for the rest of his life—the story is one of the most remarkable of literary friendships. It is certain that but for the Meynells Thompson would never have emerged from the terrible obscurity of his poverty and weakness. If the iooe in meek duty May dedicate humbly To -her grows the beauty ■Wherewith ehe is comely." So Thompson began his dedication .to his friends and saviours. Their fame is interwoven—the greatest religious poet of our time, and the gracious couple who saved him from himself and the bufferings of Fate, and rescued his genius for the world.