A Beautiful Soul

New Zealand Tablet, Volume L, Issue 37, 20 September 1923, Page 17

A Beautiful Soul

REVEALED IX THE POETRY AND ESSAYS OF ALICE MEYNELL. (By “Old lambic,” in the Belfast Irish Weekly.) When Death claimed Alice Meyuell and her dark eyes no longer caught a glimpse of the silent moon rising at eventide, nor at dawn perceived the climbing of the “Silver sun,” the world mourned her loss.

The world i- fickle in favoring the few who are not seeking pomp aim power. It is inclined to look suspiciously on those who cci-ffs. they are not searching for fame, but honestly and sinc.ete'y work to give out their messag?, and leave the world better for their passing througn it Alice Meym has been acclaimed a great poet. Death has silenced aw voice of song. The voice that spokd of 'Early Spring" and ''The Love Narcissus," and was raised in numerous other poems is still heard and has been preserved in her work.

She had the praise of Dickens. Ruskin, Rossetti, and other great literary people; yet she was reticent and unspoiled by such emulation. Recognition made her humble.

(Jems of poetry and prose are the jewels she has bequeathed to the world. They are gems whose brilliance refracts a religious light, a gentle glow that warms, thrills, and satisfies. They came from the mind of a beautiful soul.

The charm of her poems increases as one dwells mi the power of the keen, sympathetic, and unfailing intellect which has left no word unsaid and no picture unfinished. She not only saw the ordinary things of life, but a treat deal of detail in the-ordinary which other poets have passed by or failed to recognise.

In her poetry she mingled the human with the divine, giving a deep spiritual tone which characterises her work.

WHENEVER SHE WROTE SHE HAD SOMETHING SIGNIFICANT TO SAY,

and having said it she leaves the reader in deep thought, for she aroused the imagination with the vivid tpourtrayal and interpretation of her thought, and stimulated a heart's desire to go on.

Into every poem there was a conscious perfection which is the obvious result of careful study and the culling of the highest thoughts on her subject, and because she believed in quality rather than quantity; we-have perfection in the one hundred poems which represent her life's work, extending : over a period of half a century. In the poem-" Unlinked" the poet expresses the sole aim of her song:

If I should quit thee, sacrifice, forswear,

To what, my art, shall I give theo in keeping? \ To the long winds of heaven? Shall these come sweeping My songs forgone against my face and hair?

Or shall the mountain streams my lost joys bear, My past poetic in rain be weeping? No, I shall live a poet waking, sleeping. And I shall die a poet unaware.

From me, my art, thou canst not pass away And I, a singer, though I cease to sing, Shall own thee without joy in thee or woe

Through my indifferent words of every day, Scattered and all unlinked the rhymes shall ring, And make my poem; and I shall not know.

But Alice Meynell did not quit sacrifice or forswear her art, and in consequence.

She has Left a Permanent Landmark in the History of Literature.

Her heart and mind were bent on attempting and giving the best, and she has given us what we want, but* 3 what Ave. are incapable of giving ourselves.

Her poetry awakens ideals, for her sensitiveness to the beauties of life were recorded and interpreted as perfectly as the English language is capable of echoing the thought of the high-minded. There is a wealth of thought in every poem, there is beauty of expression and charity

of meaning in each detail;, and her legacy to the , literary world will last, because she did not play with the superficial and th© extraneous, but she dwelt on serious sentiments to be given thought and study.

In her prose works Alice Meynell is mistress of the choicest English. It is in her essays that she treats with the fine detail in the ordinary. She did not draw on the treasure chest of other essayists, and she purposely avoided the repetition of hackneyed subjects.

This Catholic poet was suggested for Poet Laureate by Coventry Patmore after the death of Tennyson, and. England has acknowledged that the laurel wreath belonged to her, but her protege Francis Thompson requested her to

Teach how the. Crucifix may bo Carven from the laurel tree.

Her life taught many things, her works teach many things, her poetry is sincere, her prose is interesting and worthy of study and thought.

Francis Thompson has left a picture of her which matches Sargent's drawing of the balanced grace of her figure :

There regent melancholy wide controls,

There Earth —and Heaven —Love play for aureoles; There sweetness out of sadness breaks at fits,

Like bubbles on dark water, or as flits

A sudden silver fin through its deep infinites; , There feeling stills her breathing with her hand, And Dream from Melancholy part wrests the wand And in the contemplation of those eyes,

Passionless passion, wild tranquillities.