The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1915-12-26
POEMS THAT PLEASED THE WORLD
WRITTEN BY "CRIMINAL LUNATIC"

London, December 15.--On the walls of
the room in one of Chicago's churches
in which its Golden Rule club meets,
artistically illuminated and tastefully
framed, hangs a copy of some delightful
verses by an English poet. Written in
1.-THE form of an acrostic on the words,
''The Golden Rule and noteworthy both
for the thoughts which they express and
the literary grace with which those
thoughts are set forth, these verses,
which are signed IS. Wyatt" are among
the most cherished possessions of the or
(ganizaton to which they are dedicated.
So well. indeed it is felt, do they epitom-
1ze the clubs aims, which are identical
with the spirit of this best of rules"
itself. that every new member of the
organization is required to commit them
to memory
Thousands of miles away, in India. a
feeling little prose poem" by s. Wyatt
has been translated into Tamil for the
use of native Christians, while others
published in the Madras Patriot" and
other leading Indian periodicals. have
brought letters of thanks from readers
to whose hearts they have gone to the
author across many seas. In S. Wyatt's
own country, England, yet another of his
intensely human compositions has lust
been put into raised Braille for the use of
the blind. Meanwhile his work, too. has
been paid the recognition of publica ton
by periodicals in this country whose ac-
ceptance of any contribution is recog,
nized as an imprimatur of it's literary
value. Another of his lyrics, addressed
to the police and fire brigades of Chicago
where S. Wyatt spent several months
some years ago, not only greatly de-
lighted the gallant members of those
bodies, but We're widely copied through
out the United States and eventually
found their way back to England and
gained new currency
1t would be rather surprising, consider
ing how far S. Wyatts lays have travelled
and how many readers they would
pear to have hit where they lived" as
Kipling put it, if someone had not specu-
lated as to the bard's identity and, may
hap, about his surroundings, but no guess
thus made is likely to have been within
miles of the extraordinary truth. For
THESE verses, with their strong note of
religious feeling, and evidence in every
line not only of high mindedness above
the usual but of scholarship far above
the average among writer's, were writ
ten, every one, within the walls of an
English prison, by man who was con-
fined there as a criminal lunatic!
Samuel Wyatt, the Berkshire poet, -
as he has been called, was for Is years
an inmate of Broadmoor Criminal Luna
tic asylum, from which he was released
in February, 1914, less than two years
ago.
Should the reader of this article fai.
to conclude that the Incarceration of
this gifted versifier and man of high
principles, ardent religious feeling and
exceptional culture was outrage
upon justice, and that his life up to his
present age, So, has been one long mar
tyrdom, the writer of these lines Will
have failed in his chief aim. Whatever
is thought of his innocence or guilt.
however, it will be agreed, | think,
that his history is as strange ano
dramatic a one as has been chronicled
lin recent years, and having set it down,
las I heard it from his own lips and
lhad it confirmed by the most convinc-
ling of documentary proofs, one may
|leave the question of Samuel Wyatt's
place in society Is well as that of his
|exact merits as a poet to be decided
|by those who are more competent to
form an authoritative opinion.
The poet, who is spare of figure, with
hair and a closely cropped beard that
from gray are turning to white, kind
|1y, indulgent blue eyes and whose man
liner is that of the polished student.
lShowed me the record of his family
history during a recent visit l paid
| him near Birmingham, where he is now
living. This pedigree occupies quite a
huge scroll which is not surprising
considering that it goes back to 1907.
The name Wyatt is a famous one in
England. One thinks at once of WAITS
rebellion, back in the reign of Bloody
|Queen Mary, for organizing which Sir
Thomas of this ilk, a great noble of his
Itme, was executed. Oddly enough, the
First name on this perhaps unique pedi-
gree is that of Adam Wyatt where
fore the joke runs in the family that
|they trace their descent from Adam,
while another of the ancestors of this
modern poet is said to have introduced
the sonnet into England!
They We're mostly mobiles and big
wigs, this long line of Wyatts. Gov
srnors. ambassadors and privy coun
cillors to the sovereigns of England
there have been among them, one of
the most notable of these latter hav-
ing been Sir Henry Wyatt of Alling-
ton castle, a puissant henchman of
Henry VII, who suffered Imprisonment
during the wars of the Roses for his
Xtaithfulness to the cause he had
espoused.
Sat the Tower of London to this day.
you may see Wyatts ROOM" remarked