The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-01-30
POET OF MYSTERY
UNFOLDS HIMSELF
Count Robert de Montesquoiu
Tells of the Literature
He Exploits.

NEW YORK, Jan. 2S.-The Count
Robert de Montesquoiu-F ezensac had
a busy day yesterday He went driving
in the morning, was the guest of Mime.
Duse at her performance at the Met
ropol1tan opera house yesterday after
noon and dined with F. Marion Craw-
ford, the novelist, and others in the
evening. Between times he moved
from the Holland house to the Hotel
Westminster, at Sixteenth street and
Irving place.
After he had dressed for the after
noon in a mixed-g gray frock suit, whose
trousers had stripes of black satin
running down the outside seams, and
just before he dressed for dinner, in his
malacca cane and other things, he talk
ed literature and art in general, and of
his literature in particular, with a re-
porter of the Sun.
Il did not take up literature" he
said, so much as it took up me-
Things which one feels deeply are
bound to find expression in some form.
| saw things and felt things different
ly, 1. thought, from the rest of my
countrymen, and those things found
expression in verse and little prose-
have written eight volumes of poetry,
seven Of which have been published
and two volumes of prose. But unlike
some authors, the great Hugo, for in
stance, did not begin to publish until
had arrived at a mature age and until
my cruder productions had been re-
vised and polished.
Il wrote poetry, a few odes, when
L was as young as IA, which were
pleasing to my grandfather, but / did
noto make my first book until about
1875. During the next fifteen years all
my books were published, except one,
the Songs of Swans which will short
ly go to the press"
What subjects have interested you
most? 2" the count was asked.
"Oh, the mysteries was the an
sWer; the mysterious, the mysterious
in art; in nature, In humanity. For in
stance, many persons might look at a
rose. To one that rose would recall the
face of his sweetheart. To another it
would bring back the picture Of the
grave of dear one in some lonely
churchyard. To one it would suggest
some mystery of nature and the story
of that mystery I would beg to tell in
verse. Perhaps I may explain it in an
other way. Leonardo da Vinci and
Raphael might have painted the pic
ture of the same woman. Raphael
would put upon the canvas the face of
a strong, sanity woman. Da Vinci
would give to the face of his subject a
something that was mysterious. He
saw the mystery in human life and
painted It,. / see it and write about it.
b while my poems were written at
periods wide apart, yet they tell, in a
way, continuous story, something
like an epic, / have been told, and my
critics have been pleased to regard this
as rather remarkable. For instance, the
first poems / wrote were gathered into
volume of 400 pages, called The Blue
Hydrangeas.' That was the second
book | published, yet the poems read
like a continuation of the story told in
the first book / published, called The
Bats Yet the poems in this volume
We're written after those about The
Blue Hydrangeas.'
In my lectures I shall treat of the
subjects treated of in my books. One
of the lecture subjects is history. That
will be talk about Versailles, with
which my family was associated even
in the time of Louis XIV. What Yer
sailles means to me / have put in a
volume of sonnets called the Red
Pearls. To me the color Of Versailles
will be always red-red with the pomp
of empire, red with the glory of it's sun
sets, red with the blood of the slain.