The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1892-10-30

had an adverse effect, which now seems
ludicrous. "Weak. sensual, effeminate"-
such were the main phrases applied to it.
In fact tho poet seems to have no chin.
There seems to be no firmness in any part
of the face, and the lips are simply baby
ish" But no has become older and very
much stronger since then and has grown
beard. and now his face is described us
almost masculine in it's vigor." He soon
showed his critics that he was anything
but weak in sarcastic rejoinder They
learned to dread him, and he is no longer
called "Swine-borne." In literary finish
he is first of living English poets, but the
conviction is general that he i; not to he
poet laureate. at really wouldn't do, YOU
know" is the English of it.
"William Morris, poet and socialist" is
the common application of the most popu.
lar candidate. He was bora near London
in 1891, the son of II rich merchant, and
WAS educated at Oxford. In lSij3 he went
into tratle"-;:iat is. 10 selling artistic wall
papers designed, by himself and Walter
Crane, a:it! soon his designs were all the
rage among the fashionable and wealthy.
Reversing the career of Southey and
Wordsworth, he has steadily grown more
radical, and is now known in both hemi-
spheres as the poet of the poor. The queen
does not like II socialist any too well, but
she would u thousand times prefer him to
Swinburne.
Lewis Morris was born at Carmarthen,
Wales, in 1857, was graduated from Jesus
college, Oxford, in 1862 and until 1850
earned his living as n convcyanccr and real
estate lawyer. He then retired to small
country place near Carmarthen and is
little known in the active world. For
many years he amused his leisure with
poetry and has published two small vol
umes-"The Songs of Two Worlds" and
Epic of Hades." He is conservative in
politics, exclusive in society and tlecorous
in language, and his works are greatly adj
Elired by the quecn-all strong points in
his favor.
There is another very conservative can
dilate whose name in this connection has
thus far excited little more than n smile.
and that is Alfred Austin, who has made
two unsuccessful attempts to enter parla-
mcnt as a Tory. He was born ut Heading
ley, near Leeds, May 80, 1885. His parents
were both Roman Catholics, and he was
educated ut one of the Catholic seminarics
His only work of any Importance. entitled
Tho Seasons" appeared in 1861. IL was
intended to lash the foib!es of the age
The Seasons" is now only remembered by
one line, in which the author in describ
ing Il ballroom calls it place
Where the half drunk lean over the half
dressed.
This almost forgotten production and a
few light album verses are all that are re-
ported of him, and it really is not easy ut
this distance to understand why lie is
spoken of for laureate ut all. Perhaps the
real reason is that in prose he is decidedly
keen and sarcastic, and has Il happy knncli
of doing" the Gladstonians in political
pamphlets. One that is much spoken of
is his Tory Horrors" which consists
largely of abuse Of Gladstone for describ
ing the Bulgarian atrocities. During the
Franco-Prussan war he represented the
London Standard in the military district