RUSKIN'S CHILDHOOD.

Lake County Press, Issue 1063, 7 May 1903, Page 6

RUSKIN'S CHILDHOOD.

The first dated " poem " (of Ruskiu's childhood) was written a month before httle John Kuskin reached the age, of seven. It is a tale of a mouse, in seven octo-syllabic couplets. "The Needless Alarm," remarkable only for tho unexpected correctness in ihyme, rhythm, and reason. His early verse, like his early prose, owes much to the summer tours. The journey to Scotland of 1826 suggested two poems, of which one is really interesting for its sus-_ tained sequence of thought—the last thing \ouask from a child—and the final stanza has a glimpse of wild imagery of the infinite, like Blake's best touches : " The pole-star guides thee on thy way, When in daik nights thou art lost; Therefore look up at the starrj sky— Look at the stars about thee tost." But these are only the more complete bits among a quantity of fragments. These summer tours were prolific in notes; everything was observed and turned into verse. The other inspiring source during this period of versification was his father—the household deity of both wife and child,whose chief delight was in his daily return from the city, and in his reading to them in the di awing-ioom at Heme Hill. John was packed into a recess where he was out of the way and the draught; he was barricaded by a little table that held his own materials for amusement, and if he liked to listen to tho reading, he had the chance of hearing good literature, the chance sometimes of hearing passages from Byron and Christopher North and Cervantes.rather beyond his compreheusii n, for his parents were not of the shockallesort; with all their religion and strict Scotch morality, thev could laugh at a broad jest, as old-fashioned people could. So he associated his father and his father's readings with the poetry of reflection, as he as'osciated the regular summer round with the poetry of description; the two mannerß were like two rivulets of verse flowing through his life; occasionally interminsling, but in their main channels and directions kept distinct. As every summer brought its crop of description, bo against the New Year (fur, being Scotch, they did not then keep cur Christmas), and against his father's biithday in May he used always to prepare some little drama, or story, or •' address ' of a reflective nature, beginning with the verse on " Time " written for New Year's Day, 1827.