MR. WILLIAM. WATSON.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1031, 21 January 1911, Page 13

MR. WILLIAM. WATSON.

A remarkably just ; omd illuminating Criticism of, the, poetrj; j of-Mr:-William' •Watson appeared in tie "New Age," tinder the signature <jf Darrell Figgis'. Woi take 'some extrad ts ! There is a fiiridameni ial. difficulty lying it the basis of Mr.; jA'illiam Watson's . ffork' that does not si: - much acc-osttho novitiate as it haunts" an'd perplexes the lover and the' studenjlt catches' admiration at tho very' threshold of enthusiasm, and arresti 3 it forcibv. In baulks affection at t he very brink of lo ve j to its own dis jomfiture. - There are probably few thi it have not been awed and entranced! by first acquaintance with_ this poefci; y that earns best the title of distinguished, and still fewer that have not,j on later intimacy, found something bai fling in it, something difficult to set < mt, but still sometimes essentially, disc oncerting and dissatisfying. It is as; though tho pomp of his utterance ha< I excit«l tho soul to expect a ■ rare, rej last of' grandeur, which, nevertheless,! was not forthcoming., And tltat; this perplexity. is in. Mr. Watson hinia elf rather than in his.reader is a convi< .-tion that his work brings with', it; • botl i in -what he' has achieved, ■ and in tli & paucity of that achievement. j f ' It stretches throughout. all his work. When first ho came to sons: romantic glamour, was in. tW: sky though the morning of material! sm was about him • and true to this rdmantic glamour he Bang-oJ_.it, his noblo achievement, in it bei)ii£-"The Prl nce's Quest-," which indeed, 1 in point; • of length, is the most considerableof all his ■work. It is j throughout reminiscent of. Ma rris; : reminiscent, too, of Keats, showj ing Morris's indebtedness there no less than his more lineal ancestry fronj. Chaucer.' In it he tells us of lands th<: most romantic and mystical: which is! absolutely the very fact;: he tells us; i yet, however convincingly ho tells las; he fails to bring them about us as; Keats does in "St. Agnes' Eve." Iti lacks magic; it is . r.ll spelt, out on thjvpage. And romanticism without ocd lilt suggestion - and mystical colour is' iioredoomed to failure; it is not romanticism, in fact, however much it boast tlie namo. Yet "The Quest" has ;in it that peculiar

(U§iincti§n pf-Mr. Watson's work from first-tq last; the siiigja f:iiforgeitabio line, fjr.ch ps, fop instance^ Along the margin of thy muttering sandaj or again:— and hear The sighing of tho darkness as I go. When a poet is discovered putting out an initial volume that contains as : its magnum opus a lengthy romantic poem, and then after four years' silence giving to the world a volume of over a hundred ipigrams in .verse, crystallised and polished with manifest effort after refinement, tho situation is sufficiently illuminating. It is Mr. Watson's own criticism of his early work. It is also his decision as to what ho proposes to mako his later work. He turns from his unriper effort, -feeling it as unexpressive of himself as it is obviously unexprossivd of tho soul of romanticism, and seeks to concontrate and yet again to concentrate, filling his lines, with meaning and making his manner more and moro marmoreal. In other words, the 'William Watson .of "Wordsworth's Grave" and "Apologia" ' begins to emerge. Yet'it-is possible so to refine, that poetry itself. has been refined away; and it is notoworthy that twenty-; 'five years later Mr. Watson seeks to recapture the moro aerial and' elusive ,muso .with what success will later :bo seen. But to achieve this compression two things are necessary: a fit vocabulary and a stem regard for form.. And that such compression should live, it must stop with, the metrical mastery of verbal pomp.. All these things wo see Mr; Watson striving after in these epigrams,'and'possessing in full flower ..of. achievement- in hjs next volume containing'"Wordsworth's Grave:" There are. not many poets that possess a vocabulary as wido as .Watson's; yet it-is. ■ not so much distinguished for its -width as for'the compactness and compression of the words-ho chooses. They' are'not wild!with beauty so much as,concentrated with'meaning, He has foresworn great work in great spaco; he will try and bring great work into small space. , His lines -come to 'wear tho valuo of stanzas', and his stanzas of cantos. Simple structures . and . . short ■ poems, - therefore, mark his work; arid hauteur of spirit and pomp of utterance its manner of delivery. But thereby it becomes more and moro self-conscious; it tends rather to the deliberation of a craft-master than to the fury and firo of inspiration in supremo inevitablenoss. ■ Tho subtlety , that raises . Coleridge to the supernatural, the. intensity awaking tho imagery of -Wordsworth, the fire of Shelley, all these things must needs be foregone. And the recoinpenso .is the echoing line or passage. Such as -this epithet fir Virgil:—'■> Lord of the incommunicable charm. How beautifully it ripples 1 Or such a . passage as ■ this 'out .of "Estrangement" Thus may a captive, in some fortress .'. 'grim, From casual speech betwixt his warders, learn ■ That June, on her triumphal.progress,goes Thro' , arched • and bannered woodland; ivliilo for him .' She is a legend emptied of 'concern, * Arid idle', is tho rumour of .the rose. ,Yet in their reserve there is something chill and forbidding, remaining with the spirit, whether we will or no, when, all their-'magnificence' of speech has died' through the air. ";:. ; l Though it lack the. divine fervour,aij ".., riotj'-his. verse at its best has tlioV'.-largo; .utterance: of the early gods"; if inspiration a little it conies .jeopardisinglyi near .being rhetoric;, and, naturally,-: when .inspiration - fails ho relies purely on its pomp to seo him 'through, and his hauteur, of: delivery. ; Therefore,, whiloi his finest pass^e's/iieVef' fire the reader,' hi£ jpassageSoibf 'iloweri order never weary,- -Ho'leans tod!securer < ly on his prop of words-.and'their-mas-tery. i , : ■ Bondage is thrpugh ;aH' his .work;, and/ flowing; from this, sadness. His "Raven's Shadow" falls over all things', till "tho universal chimo falter out of tune aind time," and in order to break away resolutely from this, he bursts into the curious and magnificent phantasy "The Dream of Man." He. imagines man having conquered all things (by inductive reasoning presumably), and reducing natural. laws. to his supreme command. Ho welds tho'whole wideuniverse into one splendid scheme, making his habitation m planets. and'stars!' Ho even and eventually conquers "Tho. Lord of, Death, tho undying,-, ev'n .Asrael the ICing."; . Having achieved so ;• far, futility overcomes him again;' and to givo existence: piquancy Asrael has to be resurrected to life and power. : But not ouly docs matcrialism'hedgo his soul and . cramp his spirit, but (so true a son': is lie of-the latter half of tho nineteenth century)..that worst form of all. materialism, polemical materialism. How deadly to poetry this is let. "The Unknown God" prove. The' wondrous burthen of a star-lit-night moves him-iinto the soul-stirring .. first : stanza of that poem; but having delivered so much he expounds his theme !in argumentative polemic of .trivial and transient interest. v t- , Herein lies the perplexity .'.of: his work. The soul of man feels that poetry is something first-hand'and vital-;- but merely l literary criticism;- and polqmic are neither, first-hand nor vital. He ; feels this himself; therefore his,utterances. are, sporadic and liis periods,-of silence lengthy.. He. has attempted to chaso these hours of silence, away. by pursuing, in his, 1909 volumo,: a moro elusive and daintier, muse. But it is somewhat too late in his'poetic' day, and the effort being scarcely successful, he returns in a slender' volumo this vear (1910) to his moro marmoreal manner, to find, that, although something of magic lias fled .from his verse,, his skill is yet all his owii, and masterly. . In fact-, Mr. Watson's main strength is that of a supreme craftsman. . A careful student of Milton, metrical step and balanco have received .his most careful attention, with, accompanying skill in the choice of, words in their music and colour; In this craftsmanship there is only one fault to "find;. and that js, it is not sufficiently disguised. It is, not craftsmanship lying complete and handy for inspiration 'to . use. It is rather craftsmanship proceeding in ite own graces and charms. '. ■Yet, this, apart, next to Milton I know - no ..craftsmanship. so complete in English verse; I know no noet that can make words march with such pomp and skill. " In - the" passago': already quoted from "Apologia," take, such tfirco lines as. these, and note how he deploys his words in the first two, gathering' them together to foot forward martially in tho 'third In silence, in the visionary .mood That, flashing light on tho ' dark deep perceives Order beyond this coil and errancy. Or, by merging two syllables' into ono long one, what extraordinary value lie gives to the word "flying" in these:— Again I smite the host at Ethahdune ' And drive them flying beforo mo to their . hold. Or take these of Autumn:— Shall see her gorgeous in tho brief Pomp of the fated reddening leaf. But it is not only in iambic verse that Mr. Watson displays his powers. For his "Hymn to tlio Ocean" is an admir- ' able examplo of English elegiacs. But it is in his short lyrics that Mr. Watson is.most truly himself. His gem ''April" has long since delighted us all. So, too, have "Scentless Flowers" and "Thy Voice from Inmost Dreamland Calls," and, among things lengthier, his "Ode to Autumn." But if any would wish to' discover the daintiest chissclling of verse-form and moulding of subdued imagery, lot him turn to, and* ponder over, "Leave-taking." It comes over tho lips like tho softest soulbreathing, and is a final, utterance, "in perfect solution," as' Pater would have it. Tliero is no problem here, but perfect joy, even though it bo the joy of an infinite sadness,