The Washington herald., 1907-04-14
BY HECTOR FULLER.

Content thee h0Wsoeer, whose days are donsi
There lies not any touhlons thing before,
Nor sight s0uad to var against thee more
For rham all winds quiet as the sun,
All waters as the shore.
Who IS there that, loving Swinburne for
the matchiess melody Of music, does not
recall that verse. taken from his Ave
Atque Vale" in memory of Charles Baude-
claire. and so fitting 10 recall now that
the greatest living English poet of to-day
has just passed his SEVENTEEN milestone.
Remembering this. one can md a peculiar
fitness in the poem to the poets self.
Seventy years old, Charles Algernon
Swinburne stands as the last of the noble
line OF Victorian poets. II was 1864 when
Swinburne first published the poem that
attracted so much attention, "Atalanta
IN Calydon,' and it was a new note on
the horizon of English poetry. Tennyson
was already on the heights; Browning.
IN the minds of the elect. held place
beside him. Norris, Arnold, Rosseti
were as yet little known, and in Ameri-
ca LongfeIlow, Lowell, Holmes. Whittier,
Whitman, and Sydney Lanier were shar-
ing in the glory that was being won in
English song.
At seventy, many captains of industry
Etin stand at the helm Of their busi-
ness ships and steer them through the
shoals. but a poet is made Of lighter stun,
and when one thinks of how early In life
the best work of the nobest poets has
been done; how the song seems to die out
OF tile heart with Increasing years, one
must feel that though Swinburne still
But ah the beauty of the song he has
already sung, Right from the very first
the magic OF his luscious verse won fame
for him with that tragedy of fate, Ala
lanta in Calydon." Here the very breath
Of spring is heard. The glory Of the
somber ending OF the poem is not soon 10
be forgot by those who read.
Two years elapsed, and then came the
volume of Poems and Ballads" which
created "a sensation, and few volumes OF
poetry have called forth such diversity
of criticism, such virulenee Of abuse. such
golden praise. The poem undoubtedly
showed how strongly the poet had fallen
under the influence of the pre-Raphaelite
movement in England, but the book rep
resented many moods, many climesi the
Hebraic feeling was there, and an expert
meut IN Greek; there were poems Of
paganlsm and songs of Christianity. Here
too, is to be found that Garden Of Pros
perine. where the poets sang;
We are not sure of soTow,
And SOY vas never sure5
To-day El die tomorrow;
Tima st0Ops to mans luFe;
And love. grown faint aud fFettu,
With lips but half Iesrettal
sighs and with eyes f1Tgetfu,
NlCps that no loves endure.
After this volume there came the ten
years during which SwInburne threw him
self into the struggle for freedom in
France and Italy, and the influence of
these years is marked in the poems, ode
on the Proclamation of the French Re
public" "A Song of Italy" and others
of similar import. Tt was in 1882 that his
'''Tristram of LyOnnesse" appeared. the
poem which as been stamped as Swim
burnes masterpiece. and which he has
certainly not surpassed since that year.
Here is his fine picture of the triumph of
Love over Death;
THE KING.
Built for their town a chapel bright like spring,
With f0Wer-s0it wreath of branching tracing made.
lair as the fEoudsge each fleet year sees fade,
That Should not IAN till many year were done.
There slept they welded under moon and sun,
And change Of stars. and through the easement
came
Midnight and moon. girt round with shadow and
naue,
TO Iune their grave or veil it tn at last,
On these things, too. was doom darkuess east;
Fer the strong sea has swallowed wall and tower.
and where their limbs were laid in woetul hour,
Fer many tatholG CLEANS and moves and means.
The tide that sweeps above their confined bones
In tie wrecked chaucli by the sAiyered shrine;
Nor where they sleep shall noon or sunlight shinei
Nor mau look down forever; none shall say
Here once or here, TTlstram and Iseult lay
But uaafs they have that none may gain who live,
Aud rest about them that no love can give,
and over them. while life and death shall be,
The light aud sound and darkness cf the sea.
I have not written thus far in an at
tempt 10 give any biographical notice of
0fr. Swinburne as his works but simply
that by pointing out one OF two of the
bright jewels i'm the crown he has so
we'll won and worn with honor so long,
some who read may have the Joy of go
ing TO his books again, and finding there,
the messages he has written. and which
shall live for many seventy
years-yhat' can lead to high thought and
fine endeavor; whose reading is AN inspi-
rauonl
Efforts to preserve the house in the
footing district, London, where Robin
son Crusoe" was written, and which is
now doomed to demolition. seem to have
met with but lukewarm interest And as
a matter of fact. do people care greatly
about Daniel Def0e, or where or how he
wrote? We have Robinson Crusoe, &"
aud those who care for it have their "AIoll
Flanders" and that covers the case De
foe seems to belong with those writer's
who have obeyed 50 well the excellent lit
erary rule of sinking themselves in the
subject that they achieve only a pale i'm
personal sort of an Immortality People
who have written books not half so good
are followed by posterity with a far
more eager interest 1t can hardly be
doubted that Robinson CrusOe" viii long
outlast Jane Eyre, but it would be
much easier TO arouse interest IN a me-
mortal 10 the Brontes.
Tt is not often that one finds a libra
rian with the saving gilt OF hum0r: there
fore il Is good that Mir, Charles +. Lum-
mis-. the professed humorist. should be
librarian OF the Los Angeles public Ii
rary. Nor does one expect humor in a
librarians report. though that it may be
the better for it Mr.. Lummis' first re-
port very clearly shows AIT Lummis
tells about the establishment of an open
air reading room He says:
The space south of the fountain is reserved
for women. The remainder Is tuly pIblic-includ-
ing smokers For many years ] have marveled
greatly that public EhTsriCs-supp0Tted as largely
as they are ia proportion of taxpayers 20 smokers
should make O. particular. and sometimes violent,
effort 90 prevent smokers from reading. We cannot
help their smoking. but help their reading.
Without any joking, ] ulsa 90 say that il seems
r. me a sin 90 discourage from library privileges
those who would enjoy them more if the library