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THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
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POETRY.
FL
[March 21, 1.908.
Loften, indeed, and some never; and then we I have dreamt of something more human bebiod the visible rail, of a Love which is yet to be the ultimate reading of the hard mysteries of life. But of mere Earth, or mere Brain—the only stuff Meredith would employ-no such figure can be woven. Thousands who have lived by Wordsworth's gift of faith, Arnold's of endurin Tennyson's of wisdom, Browning's of joy, wel turn away fron this proffer of strength a
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one not receivable b human sorrow till other gifts have gone before it,
The religions that have conquered the world are not those which have proclaimed strength, but those that have consoled weakness.
the true
the unique situation of this Colony, is prepared only to grant it, namely, the function of criticism. Mr MURRAY STEWART A (Daily Press, March 20th.)
Lovers of poetry will perhaps forgive us believes the officials of this Colony prepared to welcome enlightened criticism; if we venture merely academically to make we do not think we go too far in saying the heretical suggestion that the power of that the Hon. Mr. H. A. HEWETT Jesus poetry is largely a matter of muemonies. There We are moved so to do by reading an article they are determined to ignore it.
in the Literary Supplement of the Times of seem to be a few people who take an enlightened interest in public affairs here, February 14th, on Mr. MEREDITH's poetry, The writer of the article, like most of Mr. who regard the Rill referred to as ano her instauce of official disregard of unofficial · MEREDITH'S readers, seems to appreciate opinions. They seem to regard the general, him more as a novelist than as a pot,
As we do not intend to be led into com- effect of the findings of the Sanitary though he reflects that in most cases verse more enduring than prose, Why is Commission as an example of enlightene) ¦ is
parative criticism, we must now return to He suggests that there is criticism, and they further seem to think that :
the suggestion with which we opened—that as | pleasurable excitement afforded by metre,' that the general effect of the Bill
conclusion to the speculations higher mood”' for poetry than for presented represents the value in the official¦à mind of that sort of criticism. If this prose, and about the more cumplex method concerning the persistence of poetry lies chiefly in its muemonic values. The rhymes, "an atmosphere in which we the form of welcome it is to get-this Bill of expression that Mr. MURRAY STEWART intends to are less conscious of changed fishims in mnemonically helpful, and pleasant to support-they say it will become increas thought and expression than we inevitably the ear, seem to have no other value as
That is to say, "there is constituent of goo! poetry, for doggerel ingly difficult to get enlightene·l pub icists are in prose." to come forward. In effect, they rely to, in poetry au clement of strangenes which may rhyme perfectly, and the rhymes of true poetry : imperfect. Rhythm seems the officials, "perlips it is right to dis- makes us reidy to welcome a certaiu un-
greater than rhyme, then, aud both more semble your love, but why do you kick us, likeness to our ways of speech and our own
natural than metre, which simply acts as a downstairs: There may be more than point of view." This explanation does not
clog on high thinking. Take that last one opinion of the importance of retaining Beem to us sufficient, and parts of it are popular administration of our Sanitary even unacceptable. That tot inconsiderable sentence in the foregoing quotation, about the conquering religious. It is a shrewd laws, but Mr. MURRAY STEWART has left us body of the public which, without geruile, well expressed, but even a doggerel He is "in the really musil character of well-chosen rendering would give it more permanency, iu no doubt as 19 his own. favour of maintaining the
Thus: undivided languig, dos not “tako kindly ta poetry,' authority of the Crown over municipal will be with us in denying the "higher
Messrs. Hewett,
Hooper, m od in which poetry is usually written." |
with a burn- Humphreys & Co. men worthy of ị A man with something to say, all relit and praise, so umler. ing message to deliver, muy sit down in a stand his pronouncement, Int down- “high mooi” to express his noble thoughts, stairs they are ta go, s 344 as their but even if "true ease in writing comes; municipal opinions :cem at all inimical to ; from art, not chance," we can see clearly recalled. "the undivided authority of the Crown." that the technical difficulties and limitations
affairs.
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Religions that the world enthral Are not of those that Strength recall But such as do the Weak console, That triplet. banal though it be, will possibly be remembered where the prose expression (which is more lucid) cinuot be If we were attempting an up-
We are reminded of the time intolerance of, of the laws of prosody must in-vitally chook / Preciation or depreciation of Mr. MEREDITH
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as poet, we would venture the assertion that he will not attain Parnassus because his verses are not easily memorized. The hot potry, in our definition, is that which 'illuminates an idea already adumbrate in the reader's mind, in words which attach themselves readily to his memory.
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150
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of numbering his feet must necessarily teul to henumb his facts. The best prose writers have a go of ear for the iambus and trocie, and write easily and uninterrupt dly that which when reid aloud is as musically
True wit is nature to advantage dressed, fluent as any potry. Given the apt worl in the captonions phrase, their bevitiful What oft was thought, but ne'er so well
expressed." ideas may
bo beautifully expressed with-out
"wit "
would say For
poetry." any loss of elarny. Their high mud ter noi sufler depressim, as in the ease of the i One Richard JEFFERIES has dressed Ña- poet who must chop is logie int lengths ture to advantage in a number of books of
element . beautiful prose, "ne'er so well expressed
WALT and his dreams intodactyls. That
even in WorDSWORTH'S poetry. kem of, which is said ta of strangeneRS P
WinMAN ›dressed Nature to advantage by save poetry from the a leged fate of archai.
the its artificialts guring the rules of prosody, and so he prose, seems to us The antesiity of the complexly artificial will never by a great poet, though he was does not off-ulus, because we have "earned obviously a pet potential, like JEFFERIES, to expect u-thig løgter. Not only the To give this perhaps tedious excursus some high mod of the p of gems, but also heal colour, we will suppose that JEFFER.
Even the writer
18s went for a walk on Sunday round the of western side of our island. What would he not hate male of it on that glorious day, in the way of a Pageant of We could imagine him writing of hownthe horizon was veiled in a heliotrope m ist, teneath which on a glassy sea the smaller
-kinds theated like Lotus blooms ou a
pond of Tokyo; of how murmuring rills adown the foliage-feathered och of the bird-music thrilling through the balny air; and so forth, and so on. Wa have too mu h veneration for JEFFERIES LO further burlesque his beautiful word paint-
the Royalists before Muston Hill and ́and hinder the outpouring. The necessity Naseby, when treason and its concomitan penalties (including the loss of ears, if not of head) lurked in every unorthodox whis... per of respect for Parliament or People, The Royalists in all sincerity doomed the Parliamentarians as reb. sern, and would admit no possibility of honest inten- tion on their part, much as Mr. MyRRAY STEWART, while "sympathising with those who deplore the lack of it." dismisses all the criticism so far advanced as "hasd on insuflicient knowledge of ascertainable facts." This does seem to us, in view of the Hon. Mr. Hewerr's devoted study and research, a lit∙le too much as if the grand. maternal method of abstracting the contents of an eggshell were being some what dis. respectfully discainted
ope of less experience. That he regarded the col s sal work done by hat Commissi mas highly valuable in many resp ets" seure-ly alone for what had just been sul. Taking the speech as a while, it seems to indicate that the new representative of the Chamber of Commerce will be less of a popular chou-
Non toys in Jaysing some of the petry pion than was the Hu. Mr. Hawaii, but
of the list entury alluded to such me-dep against that we may set his explicit promise to "maintain an attitude of tsp en te obscurities as mean nghose jargon, and 1.. mental degeneracy, independence.” That, to those who prefer Mr. Minas ceriamly na D cadout, more democratic control of purely munier, but a strong, to a-herded olis re cipal matters, will not mean so much after
ver, and when his outspoken statement of his pro official position, but it does at least show the right nothing, we know that they were my cut
mean somethu, but that the tricks of the spirit in one proposing to follow so outs spoken and independent a representative
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was the Hon. Mr. HRWEIF, whose enforced departure at the present jineture is an occasion of general regret
March
18th to
consider the
his lagh meaning. speaks of the "int derails be unity the po-t, as in Mr. Manamaru's lines.
L
Wherefore their x u... in me, er mine, Through self-f- rgett Juess divine, In them, bust soug alott mum'ains,”
anbibate l
lus lu
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1. mat
rhym r's trole provented it from gumag the vivid expression he knows so well how to put in prose We would classiły Mr.
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Merebut as a sei-nute pizmu, and note that the 70s writer hide nt dissimilar, although he protests where
Mr would approve
ME FKKDITH
the *ays this aruel»,
Pet of
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slope ma le
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Those of us who might read him afterwards, on some similar sunny Sabbath, would recognise the beautiful fidelity of his word-painting, and enjoy it; but --and here
the point re should not remember it, We should need the poet, or in this case the maker of doggerel, to crystalise for us and preserve the memory of a pleasant excursion, we call the merely mnemonic heud with whist
devices and aids of prosody.
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A meeting was called by the H-m. Mr Pollock on advisability of holding an arts and crafts rather than of th licar', ptea hig ก exhibition, but only a few gentlemen attended
gospel of vitality, and nothing else, and Mr. Pollock decided not to proceed
but it is not, in any case, one we can always be i further with the matter.
of us very brave enough to listen to; none
Horison veiled 11 huliotrope, Manged foliage dark upon the slope That sinks to where the sanlit sen