A POET'S FORGETFULNESS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 6, Issue 1628, 8 March 1884, Page 4

A POET'S FORGETFULNESS.

Mr Algernon Charles Swinburne liaa jusc furnished a very amusing instance of the way in which authors are apt to ioi'get their own compositions. Anions; this many Christmas annuals that have appeared this year is ono entitled " Walnuts and Wine," the editor of which is Mr Augustus M. Moore, This annual contained, amongst other things, a poem under the natue of 11 Dolorida," the authorship of which was attributed to the great prophet of the "fleshy school," No sooner had the papers begun to coinmect upon it than Mr A, 0, Swinburne wrote off in hot haste, disavowing all connection with the Annual and all knowledgo of the poem, To quote his own sweeping language : "The Annual and the editor, the contributor and the contribution, are all alike unknown to your obedient servant," This at once brought the editor (Mr Augustus M. Moore) into the field, who defended himself in a very amusing letter, After expressing surprise that Swinburne should have failed to recognise his own inimitable style, and confidently believing that none but himself would have dared to doubt the genuiness of the lines which bore the indelible impress of his genius, Mr Moure goes on to say: "Perhaps when I tell him that I discovered this pearl of pearls in the treasure house of a friend, who is the direct inheritor of the same from a lady who was as proud of Mr S's friend as he was proud of hers . . . when I tell him that I copied the poem from his ownunforgeable handwriting, I am sure that even the fancies of poetry will permit him to recognise the stem fact that the lines are Ms," This story recalls the anecdote of Sir Walter Scott, who, after having heard ono of his own shorter poems read aloud at a drawingI'ooin, innocently remaiked, "That is a