FRANCIS THOMPSON.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 15826, 26 July 1913, Page 14

FRANCIS THOMPSON.

A-FEW WORDS ON THE NEW

The one event that promises to atone for. a dull season in the book world is the publication of the'' Works and Life, of Francis Thompson '' by Messrs Burns and Oatos. The " Works " have just appeared in three volumes, the third consisting of prose essays, reveries, and reviews. Among the poems appear many hitherto unpublished pieces of the first importance. The manuscript of his Life is now' leaving the hands of the author, Mr Everard Meynell. ; . ~",..-.:.

There is a sense of privilege at any time about a vis't to a- home like the Meynclls', where so many memories, gather of authors and great books in the making. Possibly, some one who has sha-red that privilege for years and met those authors in the flesh will one of these fine days commit to paper his impressions and acknowledgments, and give the world some taste of the Elysium he has known. If it has not already made the theme of a great prose-picture from eome eloquent pen, the fact is due to the finer reticence that is imposed on ; eyery company of guests under such cowitions, and a. comparative stranger most of all has reason to reGi>ect it. But I lavo prevailed on Mir and Mrs M-cynoll to say something for print concerning the poet who is in all men's minds, and, first, a word is due by way of footnote of confirmation to Mr Lewis Hind' 6 recent letter on the subject in the pages of the Nation. It was written with inner knowledge and an enthusiaam that certainly was not' horn •yesterday, for Mr Hind was one of the first . editors ,to recognise • Thompson's genius, and the Academy during Mr Hind's control gave the poet the hospitality ot its columns over and over again.

" One point remains to be made clear," said Sir Wilfrid Meynell, " once and for all. It should be und-erstood fcliat never during the last 19 years of his life was Francis Thompson ever a. beggar or in extremity of need. The debt was not his, but mine. To put the contrary is to convej' a. vrrong Impression of tho man and to prevent the public from viewing him as he demands to be viewed—a perfectly healthy-minded and, responsible being. The attempt to convey some idea of his exaltation of temperament by representing him as staring at the stars is pardonable in its picturesqueness, but it does injustice to a man who never lost his sense of realities. He sings in one of his odes of Tennyson's ' conscious Muse,' and the consciousness in the case of the two poets .was'-very different, in its land perhaps. But it must not be forgotten that Thompson, whatever some of his critics may hold, belonged to the present day. He was of the twentieth century, and says so himself in one of the prose studies shortly to appear." " The lineage of bis verse is from the seventeenth century," I ventured to say, " and this, perhaps, accounts for the confusion of ideas."

"He derives, in a sense, from Crashaw and Cowley and Donne," was the reply, " though here again one must guard against the narrow view that he borrowed their diction. Thompson wus never a man who made lists of words for the sake of their music or meaning. Those who ever saw him at work, or who have studied his manuscript notes and writings, can vouch for this. Some of the richest— though, of course, not the most finished— of bis' verse was done simply as journalism under requisition, .and often at brief notice. He would sit at the little table in the corner there for a few hours, and the only intermediate stage' would be a rapid pencil draught, until he took a pen and wrote out the finished copy with never.an erasure." Mr Meynell took from a desk a number of these folios in manuscript, and the fairness of the copy was equal to w3r.it tradition says of Shakespeare's own.

"After the labour of composition," put in Mrs Meynell at length, " he would lie at full length here before the fire, as if exhausted; but this would not last. He had a living and habitual cheerfulness of soul. He led a happy life, an<i his moods of intensity did him no harm.'' He loved writing, and it came to him with a natural ease, even in much of the greatest of his work. Part of his happiness came from utter carelessness as to what the public thought of him; the appreciation of a few was enough..., No, I .cannot think he gave any thought as to whether his life was to be long or short; all we know.' is that towards the end he knew what;was coming, and accepted it calmly. We urged on him to allow himself to go into a, hospital, but he refused. It was only when I asked him. whether he would go to the hospital of St. John and St. Elizabeth that he consented, but this was because 'Dimpling' tfas there. 'Dimpling ' 'was Madeline Mary, the little friend he has named in some of his poems.

:■•" Only now and then,'' Mrs Meynell resumed after a while, " was he despondent, and this was when he nursed needless fears that _ his gift of poetry was waning. He said sometimes in tones of great dejection : "It's no use; I can feel it going.' I reassured him, and said: 'Don't grieve, Francis; this is only a passing fancy of yours; it will all come back.' This was true, of course; it did return, and there were no grounds for his ■repining. But his sadness when these moods came to him was pitiable and inexpressible, and, though they did not last, they grew upon him oftener, and it was harder to remove them."

Mr Meynell pointed out that it was his power of taking a child, a visit, or an incident of daily life as the incentive for a poem, that went to prove Thompson's naturalness and power and contact with life. Where he took up a theme out of raillery.or scorn, the result was himself, and there are several of his poems that Mr Meynell prefers to keep unpublished for the present. "I am certain that he would not liave consented to their appearance," _he said; "and my aim is to present him to the public with all the. frankness, but also with all the reserve, that he would have shown himself.'' What may happen later, when the public is better used to his genius, it is not necessary to say at present, beyond the fact that the manuscripts are being carefully preserved. And after hearing several of these rejected manuscripts read I can testify to their marvellous range and felicity and power, believing with certainty that the day must come when these treasures cannot further be withheld. But Mr Meynell is wisely including in the prcse volume a number of Thompson's short reviews, .all cordial and nearly all prophetic, for they hailed, in many cases the coming of poets younger than himself, like Mr Noyes and others.

In the course of further conversation I learned that one of the earliest reviews of praise given to Thompson was -written by Mr Arnold Bennett in a paper he once edited. But the greatest ever ■written to him appeared in the Newcastle Chronicle from the pen ( of a journalist who learned of Thompson through a chance quotation by Katharine Tynan. "He read everything of the poet's that lie could obtain," said Mr Meynell, " and wrote a tribute'that has never been surpassed for insight or enthusiasm. It was Mr Garvin."

Wc went on to discuss once more the authors who ranked among the poet's favourites, and so drifted back to the sources of his inspiration. Mr Moynoll told mc that over and over again Thompson hiineelf acknowledged lu's debt to two poets in the main—to Coventry. Patmore and to Mrs Meynell. Tin's remark served to revive what was .clearly an old differonce of opinion, and as I listened it struck me that the emphasis on one side of the argument came manifestly from modesty, nothing else. It was a contest of pride and disavowal which only a poet could set on record as it deserves, and I am none. J. P. C. , ■ In the Pall Mall Gazette.