A LOSS TO POETRY.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 496, 1 May 1909, Page 11

A LOSS TO POETRY.

(Br Kmmeb.) (Specially written for Tms Dominion.) la concluding, ten years ago,. his survey . .(Df "The Makers' of Modern Poetry," tho Rev. Dr. Dawson indicated thrco younger men,; all' recently . alive, who were accounted : -worthy of •& place with the 'groat coinpar.y of the past. They wero John Davidson, i'rancis Thompson, and W. B. .Yeats, and r tho performance of all throe up to that dato undoubtedly gave promise of their carrying on' tho high tradition of' English poetry, and doing noble work in the future. Frau- > cis Thompsonik dead; having loft,-indeed, an imperishable monument. ■ Yeats hasoontinued /to give H3 a music that yet ' is not' great.song, and now John Davidson is dead. At least 1 it cgems impossible. to hopo for any othor explanation of his long ■ . disappearance, in view of' the note stating • that ha oould not bear his sufferings from cancer. Davidson was .singled out by Dr. Dawson as possessing the greatest, affluence of gifts of these young mcnof promise, and it & difficult-'not to 1 agree with that judgment. Ho had not the vision, the-Tapture, ■ tho soaring imagination of Thompson, but ho had more humanity, more divorsity of, appeal, and in these / respccts his advantage was still greater oyer iGatfl. .Nevertheless he has''only touched greatneas, ; as in the "Ballad; of a Nun" ahd a'fow'ot'hor poems. -He might havo found, moro, favour, as a poot if'ho had not hampered himself •with a "mossage'.'- which .tcry j few, '■ apparently,;cared>to /hear. ■ He has- been ; 'an'apostlo. of Tevolt against* religion God"; ihe has also been an apostlo .'of the innate, virtue and nobility of man, but his, brave afErma : itive creed "has not atoned for. the'disfavour of his fierce,, destructive zeal. To "bait high Heaven" has beon called hia* favourite occu-; pation. In .Byron's day this, spirit of. atheists revolt would probably have been admired, with whatever misgivings and secret . tremblings; twenty'years ago it might have been very widely, approved without any: misgivings; but at tho present time,-., apparently, thoso whom; it; docs .not offend.:receivo it with indiffcironce;. This tilting at tho skies has lost itsindjreltyy -to-'thoughtful ' people, nowadays, • it'is! moro foolish - than tilting at Don Quixote's 1 wihdmill; their, opinions diif<xr widely .as to what may. be beyond the skies, but thoy. are nothing liko 1 so confident as a previous , generation that i tho most resolute, antagonist can tilt • them down. As far ,as .one 'can gather, from a : dozen poems; . Davidson'a hatred .of the Divine, as' it is commonly understood, is a distorted consequence of ~.hiswhole-souled love for man.-.', Tho v ,only.:'sbying of. Christ . which he remembers is that.'h'e/came,-"not to bring pcaco into the worid/ but a 1 sword." The crimes that have be6n wrought in tlio name of Christianity have-.impressod him more than Christianity itself,- and ho di»' , tinguishes : insufficiently;- between" the - spirit of religion and its false .followers. ; vTho ~. thought 'Of "thumb-screws, racks, : strappadoes, cord, and stake,"v religious wars and . dissensions, fires him; with indignation, not Against man, but against Christianity. In . poom after poem he'oxtob 1 man as tho po- ■ tontiaUy divine, if he will shako off creeds. Sometimes ho apparently misdoubts this divinity 'of man.., In 1 one poem ho tells how v ' a'youth, revolting from nis parents' simplo • northern crefed —Dandson < was born in Scotland —porsuades himself that man is himself God, and then' Tccoila from tho conviction :— "A God? a molo, a worm! • An engine'.frail, of brittlo i bones oonjoined j With tissue packed; with nervoa, transmitting foroe; And driven by. water, thick and coloured red:' That may for a fow pence a day be hired In thousands to be shot at—On, a God, That lies an dsteals and murders 1 such a God : Passionate, dissolute, • incontinent! • A God that starves in thousands, and ■■■ ashamed." ; 1 ■ But ho is consoled always .by. tho Pagan loveliness and innocence of nature, and tho marvel of human, love. : It is more pleasant to dwell on Davidson tho man-lover than :on Davidson the rpbel. Despite the lines above quoted, his faith in man seldom deserts him, and his sympathy I for man never. When he admits a' God,' ho : maltos him-reward greatly the sufferings and toil of man. In''A Ballad of Hoavon," the musician who neglects wife and child for his: art awakens in heaven to find tho music wnich :he wrought; with-anguish' become, tho ■■■■ .music of tho spheres. ;: Another.' poem tells ns how hell could not oontain a woman who *. had boon betrayed. Sho had stabbed herself to bo with hor lover, and when sho woke up in holl, and four.d thalt ho had'deceived her, and was not dead, she ran across tho weltering doep that' separates • holl from _ heaven. : •' Tho souls in holl saw the great,dividing gulf. To her, it seemod a meadow .fair; . And fiowers.;spiang' ,rip .'about her feet; ' She entered • heavenshe ; climbed the stair.; .; And knelt down at tho mercy scat. ; ■ ■ Seraphs and saints, with one great voico Welcomed that soul that , knew not fearj Amazed to.find,it could rejoice, Hell raised a hoarse, : half-human cheer.

Ho has sung tho pathotio song of "Thirty Bob a 'Week, tho song of tho loafer, of tho Socialist. He has even made songs for tho street piano, to the tunce of "Ta-rarra-hoom-do-ay, and "After the BalL" Has any other poet gone so far? This is what the labfturcr's wife is.made to'sing to the former time:— '' ' All tho day I worked and played When I was a .little maid; ; ' Soft and nimble as a mouse, living in my father's house. If I lacked my liberty, J - And my thoughts were free as Though my hands were hacked all oas, ' Ah! my heart was never sore. .. ■ Oh! once I had my fling! 1 romped at ging-go-ring; / I used to dance and sing, 1 ■ . And play at everything; I nover feared tho light; _ ■ ■ •I'Shrank/from no ones, signt; " I saw the world' was right ; ■ I always slept at night. . Tho scoond verse contrasts hor ..married lot. I Tho quotations havo been, chosen to show Davidson in his more distinctive moods, but it is as' poet of nature, that he most excels. His: descriptions of English' country - 6cetnery want only' the scent of flowers and woods, and no intrusions •of a quarrelsome, Munion mar tho appreciation of'tbeeo joys.- Ho has also given a strength and intensity to the simple, ballad form which it . has rarely had before,' and he/lias, the art of writing fine verse as easily and naturally as if it were prose. Ho never has to seek for words, or wrest.. the /syntax ; the words fall naturally into their, places, 'and for . spontaneity, ' variety, - and vigour -..of utterance, beeni compared to the Elizabethans. Some of his freshest' and most work is to be. seen'.in " the '.'Fleet .Street Eclogues, scheme of which is charmingly Revised; .dalf a 'dozen London journalists, whose phaxactorß are carefully differentiated, iheot: at intervals to drink alo arid discuss the hardships, and honours of their calling, and tho scheme or creation, as scoii from' different points of viow, to bemoan. and decry tho dcgcnc-nicy of the times, and to confess, in lovoly words, their- visions ■of country lanes and .floweis. But iDavidsori' should be read by those who , would .know more of his . fine poetry, - and though'- hia. complete volumes are not easy to acquire', an admirable little book of selections can bo had locally for 65.; ■, _ ■ . - ■In spite of his. great merits,-it .is probable that John. Davidson haa not satisfied tho hopes of Dr. Dawson and other warm: ad--mirers of-his early work; T He 'has not fallen iirom the early .standard,' but he has not iiotably surpassed: it.. His death is-a great loss,- however, when" one .'considers how few |iih/jers .of importance, there are left.; One is iipt' ; to consider 'Mr. William 'Watson as_ a younger poet, but ho is 61 years'old, and his 'austere, derivative muse is not for tho many. ISwinburno was always young, and lie is dead. /?eats'ia'busy .trying- to resurrect an ancient literature, Eohcrt' Bridges, who ; was ..writing exquisite lyrics till- he begair .to -perpetrate verso' in classical metres, is now 64; Kipling was nevor a poet primarily, and has ceased to writo' even verse; Alfred Noyos, a . verj young man still, has accomplished a beautiful . . and elaborate epic poem, somo ; fine ; lyrics, and an alarming 1 qnaAtaty .: of ■ Bing-6ong, Meredith alone sorvives of the great Victorians, and he has -paaeed his four scon years. Tho prospect is a dark one foi English poetryin/'America Longfellow and Poe have still no-adequate successors';- ii Europe no poet, apparently, has won'; th< international fame which j y?as enjoyed/ dj , Swinburne. Modern times,, of. •'■ stress anc hinry, business and oompetitiom,. are opposec to the spirit pi poetry. So much the worst ;■ if-or !*tho times; ; - ■ :