and Keble’s,—
‘Meanwhile He paces through the adoring crowd
Calm as the march of some majestic cloud.’
or his,—
‘In His meek power He climbs the mountain’s brow.’
Every line of such verse is precious but the lines are few, no doubt because the subject is supremely august. Meantime we are waiting for the great epic: because the need seems to be urgent the writer has ventured to offer a temporary stop-gap in the six volumes of The Saviour of the World.” (From the Preface to the first volume).
A girl of thirteen and a half (Form IV) in her Easter examination tackled the question: “The people sat in darkness”.... “I am the Light of the World.” Shew as far as you can the meaning of these statements. She was not asked to write in verse, and was she not taught by a beautiful instinct to recognise that the phrases she had to deal with were essential poetry and that she could best express herself in verse?
“The people sat in darkness—all was dim,
No light had yet come unto them from Him,
No hope as yet of Heaven after life,