The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1896-11-12
UNHAPPY CLEMENT SCOTT.
Sarcastic Englishman's Comment on
the Critics Poems.

Sarcastic Englishman's Comment OF
the Critics Poems.
Bexhill-on- Sea is the haven for me
( "hene er my nerves are depressed,
| FOR there 8 retreat where you golf and you
| eat,
| And you sleep and you dream and you rest
These exquisite words were writ.
ten by one of the most prolific and.
it may be, most popular of our mod.
ern poets, Mr.. Clement Scott. We
quote them, not merely because
their cadence has haunted us and il
is pleasure to write them out, but
also because they seem to epitomize
the bitter tragedy of their writer's
life.
Every great poet has had some one
impulse, to which may be traced all
that is finest in his work. It is a
function of criticism to determine
in each case what that impulse was.
Some poets have been impelled by a
love either of liberty, or of truth, 'tor
OF pleasure, or of their native land :;
others, again-and it may be that
their work is the most enduring-by
love of nature. Wordsworth loved
nature in all her manifestations To
him sky, air, water, landscape, were
all impressive and suggestive. Shell
ley was more particularly 1.-The poet
OF the clouds" Swinburne is the
poet of the sea. And Mr.. Clement
Scott is the poet Of the seaside.
Circumstances, the curse of poets,
compel this man to live in London,
driving him in and out of glazing
theaters, up and down Fleet street.
1t is fearful to think of his soul be-
ing slowly crushed by so uncon-
genial a life. Many, many are the
poems he has written about this or
that seaside resort. Some of them,
indeed, have evidently been written
during a happy holiday and are in
stinct with the joyous spirit of Sat
urday to Monday. But most, alas,
have been wrung from him in smoky
exile and are suffused with mel
ancholy, subdued, nostalgia! AS in
the lines written recently and quot
ed above, he writes most often, not
with Horace's mild desire for the
Sabine farm, but rather with Byron's
terrible longing for Ravenna.
Now, we do earnestly appeal to the
dramatic profession, ever generous
in helping the oppressed, and not
only to that profession, but also to
all whose hearts have been, like /
ours, gladdened by the poetry of |
this man, to raise some great fund |
which will enable him to flee away, |
with his broken heart and his split |
infnitives, to the shores of Bexhill- !
on.Sea, there to work out his genius.
1t may be that his love for this place
is not destined to be lifelong. We
suspect that Cromer was the great |
passion of his life. 1t is not given to |
any man to love twice with devo.
ton so ecstatio as that which Scott
gave to Cromer. Perhaps he knows
that that love is always really up
permost in his breast and whispers
to himself, in paraphrase |!
Of another poet:
have forgot much, Cromer! Gone with the
wind
And thrown confetti with the riotous throng, |
Dancing to put thy red, lost poppies out Of |
mind;
But was desolate and sick of an old passion |
Yea! Though wrote Bexhill up, all along |
have been faithful to thee, Cromer, in my !
fashion.
But let us not pry into these heart |
secrets. Let US rather respect the
spoken wish of the poet. Scott has
cried aloud for Bexhill- Sea. To
Bexhill- Sea let him go. Poetry
and drama will uplift their voices
in a sweet unison of praise when
they hear that he is at length living
there. -Saturday Review.