The Detroit times. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1903-1920, 1913-09-12

the private disnguring OF tears. Made.
as 1T Is. out Of what might be the
commonplace II 1t wyere not the most
select thing In the world; written. -
| II IL. with q deliberateness which
might be cold II II were not at that
quiet heat In which rapture IL no
longer astonished at itself; realizing.
az It does. Coleridges requirement
that poetry In It's higher and purer
sense should demand continuous ad.
miration. not regular recurrence Of
conscious surprise: this poetry. more
than almost any In English. 10 art
for arts sake; and 1t shows, better
certainly than any In English, 10 art
for arts sake; and than any other.
how that formula saves from excess
rather than induces to 1t. So evenly
are form and substance set over
against each other that II might be
said. with as much or as little justice.
that everything exists for form, or
that nothing IL sacrificed to It,"
Still dealing with matters stylistic
and technical, Mr.. Symons makes
this interesting comparison: MT.
Meredith, caring most for original
ity. nvents for every noun and ad-
jectve which has never run In har.
ness with 1t, and which champs and
rears intractably at its side. Mr..
Swinburne. preferring what goes
smoothly to what comes startingly
from distance, chooses his epithets
for their sound and for their tradi-
tional significance, their Immediate
l-to A..
Bridges obtains his delicate, evasibly
simple effects by coaxing beautiful
alien words to come together willing
ly and take service with him as II
they had been born under his care"
Mr.. Bridges, it seems. like that very
different poet, Thomas Moore. Is an
accomplished musician. He wrote q
Purcell Ode for the setting of Sir
Herbert Parry. and the words of the
oratorio Eden" for which DR.. Villiers
Stanford composed the music. The
Study of Music" according to Mr.
Symons, has taught Mr.. Bridges
what the daily practice of 1t taught
the song writes OF the age Of Eliza.
beth-a delicate and In time distinc-
tive sense of the musical value Of
words and syllables. the precise sing
ing quality Of rythms. with all kinds
Of dainty tricks. which, II they come
at all. can come only by some rare
accident to the song writer who 10
not musician. To Mr.. Bridges II
Is part of his science.
To two charges Mr.. Bridges's work
obviously Is exposed. His fondness for
archaic phrases and ideas makes his
poems seem to some critics unorig-
inal, and his peculiar metrical theory
makes them seem clumsy. From both
OF these charges Mr.. Symons defends
him with consummate skill In the
essay from which we have already
quoted.
Lives in Another Age.
He says in par 8rid.ss1
Asft Ii N5erse h. - I.Ar
originality, and 1t is true that his
finest lyrics might have found their
place among the lyrics In an Eliza
bethan song book. And yet they are
not archaic, q going back to the eter-
nal qualities Of style, but thinking
back, az Of one who really In thought
lives In another age to which his
lcAPoI VI uliuu 10 IuOI0 0hIn. Aucy
are very personal, but personal In q
way 80 abstract. 30 little dependent
on, the accidents of what we call per-
sonality that II seems the most nat
ural thing In the world for him to
turn to q style which comes to him
with q great anonymous tradition. He
has never had that somewhat prosaic
desire to paint himself with all the
warts and he is quite Indifferent to
the self-consciousness which goes by
the name OF originality. Just as, In
his plays, he borrows frankly from
any one who deals in his own mer-
chandise, so In his lyrics he tries to
write only what might have been
written at any time or In any coun.
try"
Mn Symons quotes from Mr..
Bridges Millions Prosody" COX.
ford: The Clarendon Press) his ex-
PLANTATION Of his method Of versifca-
ton. 1t Is, In part, as follows: I'm
mediately English verse Is written
free from Enumeration Of syllables.
1t falls back on the number of stress
es as its determining law; that 1t. its
governing power, and constitutes its
form; and this is a perfectly differ
ent system from that which counts to
our language, and I think that the
confusion which exists with regard
to It Is due to the fact that stress
cannot be excluded from considera-
ton even In verse that depends pri-
marily on the number Of syllables.
The two systems are mixed in our
tradition. and they must be separ.
ated before prosody Of stress can
rise. But II once the notion be got