Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1882-04-18
a Visit to Svrfnburne.
Z c. stedman. in Harper's Magazine for May.


Few will deny that rural England, when the
Gun really Shines and of q mIdsummer's day. is
the loveIiest country in the world-all the love
lier because the sun shines so seldom. On such
Q rare day went down past windsOrt to Henley
on-Thsmes to visit Mr.. Swinburne, to have sight
of and talk with poet whose earliest works had
excited in me an interest that our correspond
ence had greatly heightened 1t chances that
the Henley station is some miles beyond the one
at which the guests OF HOLLYWOOD usually stop.
So took fy, and drove back over delight
fttl road which finally brought me TO the honse
j found It a spacious - lite mansion OF the
Georgian type, with a garden divided from the
earriage-way by a wall against which leach trees
and apricot were trailed to face the sun
In the entrance hall was quaint collection Of
old china, heirio0mS OF the family The poet
was working In his bedroom, q chamber plainly
furnished, but with glorious view from the
windows-the Swinburne lawn. with fine old
trees slOping from the foreground A wooden
table was covered with the manuscript sheets of
poem which he had been writing with the
speed that is transferred to his galloping ana
pests 1t was the long. melodi0us, haunting
piece, ION the Cliffs" cOnsecrate to the memory
aad muse of napphO- Although had heard Of
Mr.. Swinburne's i'll health. and that he was then
In great retirement, it seemed that met him at
an suspicious time. Except for chronic ner-
vOusness, or what should call
ovERPossEssIoN OF HIS BODY By HIS MIND.
he was in health, voice, and spirits, and he read
me what was then completed of his poem. 1t
grew out of night in Italy-I think he said in
Fiesolc-where he was kept awake by the sing
ing of the nightingales, and fancied their song
bore a resemblance to famous line Of Sap
pho's. He read his lyrical rhapsody with free
chanting cadence, like the poet he Is, and
rs such verbal music should be read At
lunch. and in our long walk after it. for he in
sisted on guiding me to the station we talked
OF much that it Is not my province to repeat.
His conversation is as noteworthy as his writ
ten text-a flood of wit. humor, learning often
enthusiastic, more rich with epigram and pithy
comment than the speech of other men, Some
things that he said may not improperly be
given to his many readers. Songs of the Spring
IbIes-a volume published in 1880. and con-
tanning the nightingale pOem-waS dedicated
TO Trelawny, whose dirge he was to write with
IN rolling year, as if TO blend in with this pHan
In the dedication he compared his song to "a
eea-mew on sea-king's wrist alightnS" for
Swinburne's hOnOrs, where he gives them, are
free-landed as his scOrn can be. The book is of
the sea throughout, and ''Thalassius is the title
OF the opening poem The author spoke to me
OF his passion for the sea, beside which much of
his youth had been passed, and which is sug-
gested and apOstrOphiZed SO constantly in all his
verse He declared that its salt must have been
IN his blood before he was born, for he could re-
member no earlier enjoyment than being held
naked IN his fathers arms, then brandished, and
shot ike stone from sling through the air
head-foremost into a wave while he laughed and
shouted with delight. He had been afraid of
other things but never of the sea.
swINBURNE UPON AMERICAN POETS.
Our talk was by no means confined to Iitera-
ture. although it is only of portion of his liter
ary comment that feel willing to make use. I
had spoken of Bryant's elemental quality as
the important thing from which verse so abso-
lutely simple as his derived its effect and had
referred to Eschylus as the highest exemplar
among the Attic poets of the power to work
simply and imaginatively. To this he partly as
senfed, In view Of the grandeur with which
fischyluS depicts the elements of nature vet
thought his chOruses anything but simple
terming one Of them ''the toughest nut with
the sweetest kernel to be found in the Grecian
drama He cOurteOusly referred to nv
structures upon his estimate of certain Ameri-
can poets, declared that he appreciated the
respective excellence Of Bryants .'Thana-
topsis" and Lowelrs 'COmmemoration Ode"
but discovered few ''notes Of song" In either of
tnem 1t was excellent good speech; but given
Is song. its first duty was to sing The one he
said. was most august meditation, the other a
noble expression Of deep and grave patriotic
feeling on supreme national occasion, but
the thing most necessary. though it NAV be
less noble, was the pulse, the flre the passion
OF musc-the quality of singer, not
OF solitary philosopher or a patriotic orator.
He said that even Whitman, when not speak
Ing poor prose, sings. and when he sings at all,
sings well, his artistic fault being ii narrow
Journalism Deep as EmersOn's thought might
De, he found no music in his verse, yet found
bro"nlngs always going to a recognizable
tune, if not always to a good one 1t was q
poor thing to have nothing but melody, and be
unable to rise above it into harmony but one
or the other, the less if not the greater, you
must have Imagine man full of great
thoughts and emotions, and resolved to ex-
press them IN painting, who has absolutely no
power upon form and color. These remarks are
printed In Justice to Mr.. Swinburne as his ex-
PLANTATION OF the points to which had publicly
objected. My reply was, If l remember Alright,
that perhaps he too severely tested rhythm by
his own brilliant and unprecedented method:
that his measures often anapestic, were swifter
ana more buOyant than any heretofore known;
that the long-wOnted effect of English rhythm
was more grave and slow, but had it's music
also, and that it Is this restrained and slower
moving melody and harmony, with its suggest
i've under-tones. which the lovers of Lowell and
Emerson think to be not wanting in their
poetry.
In common with other writers 1 have noted
the fact that fncessant elevated music is some
times more wearisOme than that which has even
tame and feeble passages Persistent sweetness
clogs and verse always fluent and melOdioris.
full OF cOncordant sounds and alterations after
Q whlle does not excel that which is less embar-
Iassed by Its own riches. Whether the hating
irregular method Of ErnersOn's verse Is due to q
wise restraint or to a lack Of resources tho
music comes at times and then, II only by con-
trast, has witching and memorable effect
THOSE, however, who assert that Mr. Swinburne's
verse and prose give Us little else than exquisite
sound are gravely In error. No modern litera-
ture Is more charged with pith, suggestive mean
ing, original thought; the remarkable technique
Ii superadded and to such q degree as often TO
make US neglect the thought and sentiment be-
meath It, This poet, 1t may be, Is at his best
when employing those curiously intricate stan
zac forms that act as q clog or break upon his
hery wheels. At present he refutes every inti-
nation OF mental or physical decline by being
The most fertile and Industrious Of authors The
volume OF his work, as l have said is prodigy
Gus: nineteen books of prose and verse, besides
critical letters and brochures, within twenty
years While each man must produce In his own
way, and while in Swinburne's most impetuous
outgivings there Is always food for thought
and never lack Of something rich and strange
his constant friends acknowledge that the one
grace OF restraint is the thing which can most
add 70 his authority. They know that in lyric
splendor and poetic enthusiasm he has no
master, and believe that as the greater includes
the less, the art to limit art Is not beyond his
command.