Page:Daughters of Genius.djvu/553

 TORU DUTT. 541 " But God had destined otherwise, And so she gently fell asleep, A creature of the starry skies Too lovely for the earth to keep. " She died in earliest womanhood; Thus dies, and leaves behind no trace, A bird's song in a leafy wood — Thus melts a sweet smile from a face." At other times she is not so fortunate. Sometimes a poem intended to be picturesque or impressive is given a really comical turn by the introduction of some unex- pected little colloquial phrase, used by Toru with perfect good faith as to its suitability. Take, for example, her translation of Victor Hugo's magnificent piece upon the "Forts of Paris " in which the mood of the English reader is undesirably affected by the statement that u At a respectful distance keep the forts, A multitude, a populace, of monstrous guns, That in the far horizon wolf- like prowl." The word "cannon-wagon," too, does not lend itself gracefully to blank verse. " The sinister cannon-wagons darkly grouped " were doubtless awe-inspiring objects, but the effect upon the reader is not wholly the one intended. Yet in the same piece occur these finely resonant lines descriptive of cannon : ' ' Far stretching out Their necks of bronze around the wall immense, They rest awake while peacefully we sleep, And in their hoarse lungs latent thunders growl Low premonitions." The notes appended to the book are almost as interest- ing, in their curious display of unlooked-for knowledge and equally unlooked-for ignorance, as the work itself. It is plain that she is acquainted with our American authors.