The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-01-25

belong to the lower middle classes was
In equally bad taste. Al; who is usually
quick wittcd, should have guessed that
! l.ATs's belief In his llneal descent from
the great Duke Of ORMoNpE was part Of
/ his poetic equipment. 1t did not
occur TO us till the last minute; but n,
knew that there were spoons in the Yeats
family bearing the Butler crest. just as
there are portraits In my family OF Sir
THOMAS MORE. and he should have re-
mcmbered that certain passages In The
Countess Cathleen' are clearly dcrivative
from the spoons. lie should have re-
! neinbered that all the romantic poets
have sought illustrious ancestry, and
rightly. since romantic poetry is con-
cerned only with mobiles and castles. gon-
falons and orifiammcs."
Having displayed his dear friend
WILLIE as an obese snOb I'm n fur coat
de luxe. Gentle GEORGE proceeds to
| exhibit him as Il humbug. I'VE have
sacrificed our lives for Art; but YOU,
what have you done? What sacrifices
have you made?" So murmurs the
canorous voice Of WILLIE. Then the
Flower Of Friendship bends In the
breeze Of memory:
Everybody began to search his mem
DRY for the sacrifices that YEATS had
made, asking himself In what prison
YEATS had languished. what rags he had
worn. what broken victuals he had eaten.
As far as anybody could remember. he
had always lived very comfortably, sitting
down invariably to regular meals, and the
his profession OF romantic poet he had
exchanged for the magnificent fur coat
which distracted our attention from what
he was saying so opulently did 1t cover
the back of the chair out of which he had
risen. But quite forgetful of the coat he
hind him. he continued to denounce the
middle classes, throwing his arms into the
air. shouting at us. and we thinking not at
all of what he was saying. but or story
that had been floating about Dublin for
some time. \ visitor had come back
from Lady GREGoRY'sl Coole telling how
he had discovered the poet lying on
sofa In a shady corner. IA plate of straw
berries on his knee. and three or four
and sugar. and how the poet after wiping
his hands on n napkin. had consented to
recte some verses"
After this loving exubcrance we are
prepared to hear that ".E remarked
that WILLIE lrATs's best poems We're
written when he was a poor boy in
Sligo: that "YEATS's inspiration was
declining: that according to f
whose gratitude 10 Mr.. MooRE for these
Inscriptions can he agined-IEATs
discovered a fine style. like livery Of
the best cloth. the most gold lace, with
Il far seen cockade, a livery bought by
a gentleman before engaging a servant;
and when the servant comes, he's too
fat or too thin, and the livery is never
worn. One more dripping of vinegar;
an the volume entitled The Wind
Among the Reeds YEATS has written a
sonnet so difficult that even the adopts
could not discover whether II referred to
a woman. city or n sailing ship. II
inclined TO the opinion that 1t was on the
House of Lords. and the poet, being writ
ten to from Ely Place. replied that the
subject of his sonnet was Coolc Park.
MALLAnMf could not be darker than this"
"a literary movement" according to
II. Consists Of Ave or six people
who live in the same town and hate
each other cordially" How wrong this
must be as to the contemporary Celtic
revival. to which and to Ireland, as the
curious may remember. Mr.. MooRE was
called from London by a voice or VI
sion: for why should Mr.. YEATS have
all the visions? In Ireland ne dis
covered the Bible. Nobody else, he is
sure. understands II So well. We can
appreciate how the episode Of DAVID
and JONATHAN must have impressed
this friend indeed.