The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-09-19
SIR LEWIS MORRIS
Al FARDDONIAETH
They Suggest the Perfect Art of the
the Great TennysOn
EXQUISITELY.WROUGHT HARMONIES
They Come Over the Spirit with the
Freshness of a Spring Morning
When the Daises Star the Sod and
ali the Birds are Awake..Notes OF
Of Great Interest.
We are pent,

The world to choose from. who. where'er
We turn,
Tread through old thoughts and fair. Yet
must we sing
We have no choice: and II more hard to
toll
White mists of early morn, yet do We find
Achievements its own guerdon.
Lewis Morris.
The difficulties of a modern poet are
well expressed in these lines from his
pen whom in this sketch we seek to
honor. In a sense the poet of our day
may be forgiven the impression that
1t is vain thing to attempt anything
new in the world of song. There are
times when the mind is oppressed with
a painful consciousness of the limits
within which thought is bound. When
II seems as If thinking and even i'm
agination were doomed eternally to
move in n circle. When with some
thing OF the bitterness of Solomon, the
heart, wearied of the dull. grey aspect
of everything around, has cried out:
"There is nothing new under the sun"
In such a mood the poet feels as though
the harvest had been reaped by other
a cleaner picking up few scanty ears.
But this is u mood which the poet
should resist with all his power, for
the world Is as young today as ever.
and IL rich in suggestiveness If we
have but souls to respond. The dews
sparkle as freshly on the budding
Quicks as they did in Eden. The lark's
soprano, the thrush's warble, and
"blackbird's lockwood flute" sound as
sweet today as they did when Shakes
peare heard them. Age has not sullied
the stars or dimmed the pensive moon.
The tales and sighs of happy lovers
have not ceased, and the mysteries OF
life and death still front us for solu-
tiOn. Homer and Shakespeare and
Wordsworth had said everything. But
this Is not so Far truer is the mood of
Mr.. Morris in another place, He sings:
For while youth is lost in soaring
thought,
And while maid grows sweet and beau
tiful.
And while springtide coming lights the
earth,
And while a child, and while flower Is
born,
And while one wrong cries for redress and
finds
soul to answer, still the world is young.
Yes. the world is still young and it
unveils it's inner loveliness to the mind
illumined with that light which was
never on the sea or shore, the consecra-
tion and the poets dream" 1t is with
out question that such q light has been
shed upon 1t by Sir Lewis Morris, and
&N... .rIa 90, n
the attention of our readers to one of
the purest and most gifted of living
poets
PARENTAGE AND CAREER.
Wales Is land of beauty, and we are
not, therefore, surprised that 1t is a
land of song. He who wanders on the
banks of the Wizard Dee" stands
amid the spray of the Swallow Falls.
or looks up to the glittering precipiccs of
Cader Idris. cannot wonder that Such
visions have stirred men into song;
and Sir Lewis Morris is Welshman.
He was born at Carmarthen in Jan
uary. 1888, and is the grandson Of the
well-known Welsh antiquary and poet,
Lewis Morris, of Penbryn. Cardigan
shire. He thus owes something to the
important law of heredity so powerfully
accumulated by modern science. His
father was the late L. T.. Williams
Morris, of CarInarthen, and his mother
was the daughter Of the late John
Hughes Of that ancient borough. The
subject of our sketch received his early
education at Cowbridge and Sherborne
school, after which he went to Jesus
College oxford. Here he graduated as
first class in classics and Chancellor $
Prizeman, and took In 1855 his M. A.
degree. In 1861 he was called to the
Bar at Lincoln Inn, where he prac-
ticed chiefly as a conveyancing counsel
until 1880. Meanwhile he had been
elected an Honorary Fellow of Jesus
College and a Knight of the Order of
the Savior (Greece) In 1880 he was
appointed on the Department Commit
tee. charged by the government 70 in
quire into the subject of Higher Edu-
cation in Wales, and In the same year
was made Justice of the peace of Car
marthenshire in which county he now
resides at Penbryn House.In 1856 he was
Gladstonian candidate for Pembroke
ana Haverfordwest. He speedily, how
ever, retired from the strife of politics
to fulfil his higher destiny as poet
SONGS OF TWO WORLDS"
1t was in the year 1872 that our au-
thor first ventured to publish, when he
issued modest volume with the above
title. The authorship of the volume
was veiled under the nom de plume of
"A New Writer" OF this volume the
Spectator wrote: "If this is the mere
prelude of a mind growing in power.
we have in him the promise of fine
poet" Other critical judgments were
equally favorable. and two years after
q second series appeared, which was
received with still more hearty ap-
proval. Blackwoods Magazine declar-
ing that "the ses are full of melo-
dious charm al sing themselves al
most without m, &C." In 1875 appeared
a third series, w..ich elected from the
Times the declaration that the author
had VIC / definite position among con-
temporary poets. These volumes have
since been collected into one. which has
passed through nearly twenty editions,
and Is published by Osgood, McIlvaine
e Co.
We are not surprised at the world S
favorable judgment Of these verses,
since in their felicitous phrasing, their
exquisitely- wrought harmonies. and
their purity and delicacy of feeling, they
suggest the perfect art of Tennyson,
and come over the spirit with the
freshness of a spring morning when
daisies star the sod and all the birds
are awake. In proof Of this assertion
take the following lines from the poem
entitled
ODE ON A FAIR SPRING MORNING.
Come. friend. let us forget
The turmoil of the world little while,
For now the soft skies smile,
The fields with flowers are set.
Let us away awhile