"Vous avez prélassé votre orgueil d'architecte
Dans des constructions dont l'audace correcte
Fait voir quelle sera votre maturité."
And when we come to a line like—
"Against the pallid shield
Of the wan sky the almond blossoms gleam"
we realise how thoroughly the praise would be deserved, and linger lovingly on the lilting music of the words and the curious Japanese setting of the picture evolved. The poem ends on a note like the drawing in of a deep breath of country air after a prolonged sojourn in towns.
"Why soon
The woodman will be here; how we have lived this night of June."
In "Requiescat" quite a different note is reached. The poem was written after the death of a beloved sister; the sentiment rings true and the very simplicity of the language conveys an atmosphere of real grief that would have been entirely marred by the intrusion of any decorative or highly-coloured phrase. The choice of Saxon words alone could produce the desired effect, and the author has realised this and made use almost exclusively of that material. Nor was he ill-advised to let himself be influenced so far as the metre is concerned by Hood's incomparable "Bridge of Sighs," and it was not in the metre alone that he availed himself of that priceless gem of English verse—
"All her bright golden hair
Tarnished with rust,
She that was young and fair
Fallen to dust."
is obviously inspired by
"Take her up tenderly,
Lift her with care;
Fashioned so slenderly,
Young, and so fair!"
But, on the other hand, Hood himself might well have envied the exquisite sentiment contained in—