MR NEILL IN REPLY TO "LETHE."

Tuapeka Times, Volume XVIII, Issue 1213, 13 January 1886, Page 3

MR NEILL IN REPLY TO "LETHE."

f To the Editor.) Sib,— -In this fair city of the South, " where every prospect pleases," and in the midst of my holidays, imagine the change which must have come over the " spirit of my dream " when in scanning the columns of the Tttapbka Times 1 read (and re-resd) the merciless attack on my latest poetical attempt entitled '•Gone!" intelligent criticism I caurt ; but arrant capt iouaness I detest. " Lethe " begins his blundering critique by informing your readers that " G-one !" is written in blank verse, when :t is not ; and I can only account for the blank in his intelligence by saying that he does not know blank verse. What true poet perplexes himself about the feet? If the reader bas a spark of poetry in his nature, he can accent or unacceut the nyliables to suit. Ihe chief difficulty ought to lie in having the head right. Some people, strange to say, pay more attention to the feet, than to the head — " Lethe" amongst the number. He says the first two lines are " execrable." I take the liberty of quoting them, and abide by your decision :— Tis night ! the vessel proudly leaves the Port, Amidst her freight an aged care-worn man. His next statement, that " His lyart locks " is taken from " The Cottar's Saturday Night," I utterly deny. My friend in style laconique says " ships reach harbors — not towns." The New Zealand Shipping Company advertise that the "Beautiful Star" -will sail for Oamaru — not Oamaru harbor. Were this sage to choose the latter destination, and trust to his own unaided efforts to gain the former, I am just afraid that from bis cetaceous prisouhouse he would write no more critiques, and this would be an afll-ction which the literary world could ill afford. Any reader with half the philosophic pietensions of "Lethe" would see that the word "expectancy " means persons expecting. " Lethe," no doubt, was full of expectancy this morning, and I have to confess my inability to satisfy his inordinate capacity in that respect. " What was the Captain asked to drop? A wreath of flowers or a garden-plot ?" Ask some 4th standard children; Hie was asked to drop a tribute, and that was a wreath of flowers, and no amount of distort ion — in which " Lethe" is an adept — can point to anything else. Now I come to a weighty question — viz., "How can a dead man keep a souvenir 1" Evidently "Lethe" thinks this is a poser. Well, to arouse him out of his lethean state. A souvenir is a remembrancer. " Lethe" will say, agreed. Then, 1 ask, are we not in the habit of putting tokens of remembrance on tne graves of loved ones, in the shape of tombstones ? And the dead in the cemetery can no more keep them than the dead in the sea ; yet the headstone or the wreath is a souvenir. lam next accused of bad grammar ? "This is the mest unkindest cut of all." Is there such a thing as bad grammar ? Language must either be grammatical or not grammatical. I shall endeavor to prove that " Lethe's" expression •* a singular nominative and a plural verb " is not to be found in my production, but is a product of his own distorted imagination.

The pent-up tear burst as a falling star, '• Lethe " says " tear " is singular and that " burst" is plural. Now boys and girls parse it ! " Tear " — a noun, common, singular, neuter, nominative to " burst." So far we agree. Now for " burst." " Burst "—a verb, active, transitive, indicative, past indefinite, third person eingular, agreeing with itß nominative" tear." Now," Lethe," where is the discord about which you rare? "Lethe" cannot see the likenesi between a tear and a star. Your failure to see things properly has produced your erratic epistle and this reply, " Ducks tread ; men walk." Laconic again. Tread means to Bet down the foot firmly, and if that is not necessary on board ship lam no judge. If it is, then I was right in making the captain tread the deck, and I am aot guiltless oi' treading on my adversary's corns. " The murky gloom " is scanned by a diligent use of the visual orbs, and pseudo-gloom can be so scanned as to be dispelled altogether by fair and intelligent thinking. Farewell, "Lethe!" Ileareyou in your den watching for another unfortunate and to boot. — I am, &c, B. Neill. Invercargill, Bth January, 1886.