The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-05-08

Arnold's work have asserted that much
OF his poetry lacks inspiration; that
he harnessed his Pegasus whenever
he had need of him and turned out
verses much as he wrote leaders. How
far wrong these critics are has just
been shown by writer who quotes
what Arnold once told him of his
methods of poeticaI 4 composition, II
do not at any time force poetry" he
said; i must be thoroughly in the
mood. These moods come imperative
~, but very irregularly. My method is
this: Either l write first, and roughly,
on scraps of paper, or my daughter
takes it down from my dictation-she
is the only one who can do SO for me
as 1 walk up and down the room and
smoke. / put the rough notes in my
pocket until the next day. Then I
read the verse over and over, correct
and copy all out myself, altering it
very much and filling it up. These
scraps l enter into sort of daybook
or ledger until the work is nearly fin
ished. 1 treat the matter thus COM
piled as the rough draft. 1 go over it
myself, polish it and transcribe it into
a second book, which may be called the
poem itself, but still in a rough state.
Then l copy ii out again, and finally,
in fair manuscript for the printer.
Every line of the poem, therefore,
passes through my mind three or four
times"
Rudyard Kipling, 1t seems. is addict
ed to wooing the muse while cycling.
1t was thus, according to his friend,
Dr. w. H. Covers, that he composed
Our Lady of the Shows" The phrase
had been haunting Kipling for some
time before the thing happened that
furnished him with the needed inspira-
ton. This was the news. that Canada
had been extended a preferential tar,
if to British imports, which would
strike the ordinary mind as about the
most prosaic piece of intelligence that
could be cleaned from a newspaper.
But it fired the Imagination of the poet
of imperialism. He heard it on a Sat
urday. On Sunday he mounted his
wheel-he was then staying at Torquay
and when he returned recited the
verses to DR.. Covers. He said that
he did not intend to publish them for
week or two, but his friend urged that
they should be printed at once, and
they were dispatched red hot to the
Times. 1t will be remembered that in
Canada some exception was taken to
the title, and this DIR. Covers considers
IAN instance alike of ingratitude and
perverted oversensitiveness"
Lord Nelson's infatuation for the
U6dUII1Ul Dul IdilIllSSS 1ONy 11dlhlA1lO41
is generally regarded as the one seri-
Gus blot on the memory of England's
greatest sailor, but in the estimation
of collectors of photographic letters that
fact will rather add to than detract
from the value of an epistle he wrote
her and which is to be offered for sale
at Sothebys early next month. 1t is
dated Sept. 25,- 1905, and is headed
Victory Off Lisbon 1t reads:
1 am anxious to join the fleet, for it
would add to my grief if any other man
was to give them the Nelson howl, which
we say is warranted never to fail. have
read, my Emma, with much interest,
I must have many others aflOat. do feel
by myself; what you must have felt at
not hearing from me Jan. 20 to after May
Is. 1 fancied that they had been stopped
by the admiralty on account of Sir Johns
orders. l mention all these cir
cumstances that my dearest Emma should
never think that her Nelson neglects or
forgets her for one moment. No. I can
truly say, you are always present where
soccer l go. l have this letter ready in
case 1 should fall in with anything from
Lisbon homeward steering. May God bless
you my best, my only beloved and with
my warmest affections to Horatia be as
Sured I am forever your most faithful
and affectionate, etc.
This is supposed to be the. last COM
plete letter penned by Lord Nelson to
his mistress and if anything can con-
done his guilty passion in the eyes of
puritanfcal moralists it is the depth
and sincerity of his affection for this
woman which is betrayed in every line
of it. An unfinished letter written by
him to Lady Hamilton and found after
his death in the cabin of the Victory is
now among the nations heirlooms in
the British museum. A letter written
by wellington the day after Waterloo
will also be a feature Of the Sotheby
sale. The Iron Duke was proof against
any form of feminine infatuation and
his moral character was without stain,
but for all that Nelson is undoubtedly
the more popular hero of the two.
Hayden Church.