HENLEY AS POET.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 312, 26 September 1908, Page 14

HENLEY AS POET.

'Roviowjng the new eiljtion of Henley's I . works, the - "Spectator"lias .thisto say of that brilliant man's poetrj:— , j .. : senley!s- is : s±ill very close to , IU, and dt is ,; a personalitj'. of-so strong and , individual a-flavour that •it is apt to mis- ■ •lead' and confuse our .judgpients his . literfiry :aohieyetnent. Over >nd oyer again ob wojead'.him we/come upoij things which delight -us,. but which, when we-, ,examine 1 . our ;dqlightseem ;te .depend for their merit, i • rather on the character which tliey suggest i than on_. any high intrinsic .-value of their i own. His vorse is as a? engaging, i as striking as yorso could be-; but is it ever , . -anything more-than this? Is it ever great I ■ poetry?' It is, the kind of -verso iwhich is. < constantly making us ,think that the writer i of it is_ an exceedingly , clever man, and very ; rarely ind^d.^that-the-writing itself is true 1 . and .beautiful. Thus Henley is at liiq"best when he'is not l aiming high—when He is' V deliberately light, as .in some of the qharni: ing "Bric-a-brac,".. or when . ho'is frankly conversational, as in, tho sonnot : on Steven- ■ son, or-when he is •pungently" fantastic, as in the macai'ore and entertaining lines be- j . . 'ginning—, ' • ' . .-'■■• " JJad(im Life's a' piece in' bloom Death goes dogging everywhere." I , .' In : such passages, as these one comes directly and easily into, touch with a rich, alert, and ingenious mind. ■ But elsewhere it is. im- ' ''possible not to feel that thip same mind is working! in an alien ipedium, and that ,it is betraying, the.: fact. by signs of; uneasiness ■ and effort, which in the best poetry never make their'appearance. • illustrates this more : clearly than Henley's use of words. Jlis pages are crowded not only with words which are in themselvc!s':junusual,' but .with curious and "unexpected verbal combinations.. Let us look, ■for instance,' at this .description' of dawn in thij City, from "London's Voluntaries" :W "And did you hear ' That little . twitter-and-cheep, . ■ : inordinately loud and clear . On this, still, spectral, exquisite atmosphere? 'Tis a fifst nest tit matins! And behold 'A rakehell' cat—how furtive and acold) .14 .spent wjtch homing from some infamous dance— ■ Obscene, ,quick-trotting, see her tip and fade :•• ■ ./' Through shadowy railings into u a pit of '• ''shade! -'Aid now! a little wind and sty^ The smell of ships (that earnest of romance), 'A sense of spacc and water, and. thereby \ A lamplit bridge puching the troubled sky." No one could deny that this was vividly ob-V'sferved,-and'vigorously set down; indeed, on ft' first reading there is little room' fori anything but admiration at such cleverness pf • image and sucji force of diction.. And yet, \ftfi moje we,:: contemplate it, the. more un-. ' satisfactory ;the whole'passage,, grows.; .The far-fetched words and the queer construc- ■ tjons not only catch our attention, they worry \ ■ it; a pel, for all their straining, how infinitely far removed is the actual effect of restlessness and glitter which these line? produce frQjn the dipi suavity of the dawn they aro intended to describe! Henley belonged to the j-oiriantic school, but he was" not a master of jts method. He could imitate tho boldness and the singularity of the great romantics—their extravagance of tone, their strange and varied vocabulary—but he lacked tho crowning art which with' them lifts what Would otherwise be merely an odd assemblage of heterogeneous details into tho region of hnporishabjs beauty. Great poetry, whatever else it may be, is always harmonious; .' and this truth is nowhere more apparent than in tljc works of thoso writers who, Jiko tho major succeed in blending to- ; . .gether the most diverse elements into a singlo wholo, so that their poetry resembleß a varied landscape flooded with evening ' light. Such achievements, however, wero beyond the scope of Henloy, for ho was without that supremo..and passionate sense of beauty which alone makes them, possible. If we compare hira with Baudelaire, for example —a writer with whom he has much in common—Henley's inferiority as. fin artist becomes obvious at once. The eccentricity and the horror which fill the Frenchman's poetry are redeemed by the consummate power with which ho dan fuso what is most preposterous and most disgusting ifito a strangely beautifjil whole. -Henley gives us the horror wjth- . out the beauty. His "In the Hospital" is .often.' simply, revolting, and in the end it {...leaves us co'd. . .