Lordly banners, waving to the stars,
Flap upon the night-wind, heavy with the dew,
Trustful youth is wending to the wars,
Strong in ancient faith to battle with the new.
Lordly banners, trodden in the clay,
Lie upon the mountain dank with other dew,
Hapless Youth hath lost the bloody day,
Ancient faith is feeble, stronger is the new.
Lordly banners, other than of yore,
Flap upon the night-wind, heavy with the dew:
Youth to battle girdeth him once more,
New and Old are feeble,—mighty is the True!
EBENEZER JONES. (1820-1860.)
[PAGE 293]
Of Welsh parentage and descent, Ebenezer Jones was born in Islington, London. Much has been written upon the famous Chartist poet, both in his relation to the socialistic movements in which he participated, and in literary criticism of his two at one time much discussed volumes, Studies of Sensation and Event (1843), and Studies of Resemblance and Consent (1849); but perhaps the best critical summary of his life-work is that of Mr Wm. J. Linton in Miles’ Poets and Poetry of the Century, Vol. V. The two poems by which Ebenezer Jones is represented here are respectively from his second and first volumes.
EMILY DAVIS (MRS PFEIFFER). (1841-1890.)
[PAGE 296]
Mrs Pfeiffer, many of whose poems achieved a wide popularity, was the daughter of a Welsh gentleman settled in Oxfordshire, and an officer in the army. She was born in Wales. Of her several volumes of verse, the first was Gerard’s Monument, etc. (1873), and the best are Sonnets and Other Songs, Under the Aspens (1884), and Sonnets (1887).
ERNEST RHYS.
[PAGE 297]
“The House of Hendra” is not given here intact: for the whole poem, see A London Rose, etc. (Elkin Mathews). Mr Rhys is the most noteworthy of the younger generation of Welsh poets and romancists, and may well be accepted as the leader of the Neo-Celtic movement in Wales. He has in a more marked degree than almost any of his compatriots of his own period the gift of style; and already his enthusiasm, knowledge, and fine and notable work in prose and verse have brought him to the front as the recognised representative of young Wales. Of Welsh parentage, Mr Rhys was born in London in 1860, spent much of his boyhood in South Wales, and his youth and early manhood in the north-country, where he intended to follow the profession of a mining engineer. However, he came to London in the early ’eighties and settled down to literary work. His first publication in book form was The Great Cockney Tragedy (1891). His poems first became known to the outside reading world through his contributions to The Book of the Rhymers’ Club (1893). In the following year he published his first and as yet sole volume of verse: A London Rose: and Other Rhymes, whence comes the fine “House of Hendra” by which he is represented here. Besides other writings, in prose, Mr Ernest Rhys was editor of the “Camelot Series” of popular reprints and translations in 65 volumes (1885-1890), and now is critical editor of The Lyric Poets (Dent), one of the most delightful poets-series extant.
CONTEMPORARY ANGLO-CELTIC POETS (MANX)
THOMAS EDWARD BROWN.
[PAGE 307]
Was born at Douglas, in the Isle of Man, in 1830. After a career of exceptional distinction at Oxford, he was appointed Vice-Principal of King William’s College in the Isle of Man (1855). Since 1863 he has been assistant-master of Clifton College. The book by which Mr Brown is best known is his admirable Fo’c’sle Yarns (Macmillan, 1881 and 1889), though the first of his tales in verse included therein, “Betsy Lee,” appeared in Macmillan’s Magazine in 1873 where it at once attracted wide attention. He has also published The Doctor (1887) and The Manx Witch (1889). The author of Fo’c’sle Yarns is by far the most noteworthy poetic representative of the Isle of Man. In range, depth of insight, dramatic vigour, keen sympathy, and narrative faculty, all transformed by the alchemy of his poetic vision, he is not only the foremost Manx poet, but one of the most notable of living writers in verse. It is probably because most of his poems deal almost wholly with Manx scenes and characters, and are for the most part written in the Manx dialect, that he is so little talked of by literary critics and so little known to the reading world at large. Than “Betsy Lee” (Fo’c’sle Yarns) there is no more moving, human, and beautiful poem, of the narrative kind, written in our time. The fragmentary lines by which the author is represented here were selected from one of his most characteristic Manx poems, and give a good idea of the common parlance of the islanders of to-day. It is from The Doctor: and Other Poems (Swan Sonnenschein, 1887).