But the day that brings forth gladness Brings my sorrow unto me. And the sorrow rests with me. Because there is a certain surface resemblance between the lyrics of these two writers, and because Arthur Symons is, incontestably, the greater talent of the two, there is a tendency to view Wratislaw as little more than a clever copyist. However this conclusion is not altogether true and demeans the memory of a writer who was, au fond, his own man.
Caprices is a slim volume of slight but entertaining lyrics.
One might therefore expect the poems to be a bit more adventuresome than they in fact are. These are, for the most part, backward looking poems. Most of the poems in Caprices are love songs. As a love poet Wratislaw's temperament is quite different than that of Arthur Symons . For Symons love is always a strain upon his nerves, and therefore the tone of Symons's basic love lyric is always anxiety.