And in each filmy chaos drown’d in space
See suns and systems yet in embryo?
Miss Clerke specially enjoyed romantic subjects; and the sea and shipping appealed to her strongly. Her ballad on The Flying Dutchman legend is one of the finest treatments of the subject I have met with, and it is to be regretted that it is not better known, for it would lend itself well both to the reciter and to the musician.
The volume of poems gave evidence of a special gift which in later years the author cultivated with great success,—that of verse translation. Her delightful and valuable book, Fable and Song in Italy, is illustrated throughout with her own versions; and although I do not pretend to have compared each version with its original, I venture to say that the translations are, as a whole, wonderfully faithful, and that when the number of them, and the variety of subjects and of measures, are considered, the verse part alone of the work is a notable achievement. The prose part is more than a mere setting; it is full of touches of illuminating thought, and many little-known facts are brought together suggestively, while many of the descriptive passages are wonderfully vivid. In Dr. Garnett’s History of Italian Literature the English versions selected by him from Boiardo and some other poets were by Ellen Clerke.
Ellen Clerke’s literary style was lighter and more spontaneous than her sister’s.
Like her sister she was highly musical, and her instrument was the guitar. A pupil of Madame Pratten, she had through the practice of many years acquired a mastery of the instrument unusual in an amateur, managing it with great skill, and arranging for it many an accompaniment. To the last almost, her singing to the guitar was full of charm; and in earlier years when the sisters sang together to her guitar accompaniment the performance was delightful.
A devoted and exemplary Catholic, Ellen Clerke was untiring in her zeal for all good works. Unselfish and loving, she was a devoted daughter, sister, and friend. Fonder of society than her sister, it was perhaps natural that she did not pursue literary work in the same persistent way. And it fell in with her sociability that she pulled a good oar and enjoyed riding.
These sisters were lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in death they were but little divided. Ellen Clerke died after a short illness on March 2, 1906.