Page:Genius, and other essays.djvu/237

GUY WETMORE CARRYL Byronic; for it is full of the Haroldian spirit of youth,—never more so than when its writer, at that stage where a man feels older than he ever again will feel until reaching his grand climacteric, breaks forth with "Heart of my heart, I am no longer young!" He revels, besides, like the Georgian pilgrim, in the sense of freedom, as he goes oversea to test the further world. "The Garden of Years" is a love poem; but its emotion is a warm under-color, toning a novice's pictures of travel during his wander-year. Technically, the poem is cast in an original stanzaic form, effectively maintained from beginning to end.

This prelude is not a criticism, but a tribute of affection and remembrance. Readers who care for poetry will at once observe that a certain lyrical eloquence is a general characteristic of "The Garden of Years" and the ensuing shorter pieces, charged with a passion for Nature and a spirit of intense sympathy with their author's fellow-men. Equally manifest is his versatility, shown by the exultant tone of the hymn of rehabilitation, "Gloria Mundi," the tenderness of "At Twilight," and the light touch of "The Débutante,"—a range even more striking when contrasted with the whimsical drollery of his published volumes of humorous verse. He did right in grouping together the five ballads that follow the title-poem; and in so doing emphasized not only their strength, but the patriotism which was one of his most attractive traits. Proud of his country's victories, American to the core, he is nowhere more impulsive than in the fine lyric, "When the Great Gray Ships Come in," which sings [223]