Page:Poetical works of Mathilde Blind.djvu/64

 38 "Cleave thou the Waves." Of these and other sonnets it has been said on another occasion: "She has been more fortunate than most in finding thoughts great enough to fill fourteen lines." "Birds of Passage" (1895), bore special reference to Egypt, and contained noble poetry on the tombs of the ancient Egyptian kings. The reception of these poems was in general more favourable than that of their predecessors: owing m a measure to the appreciative criticism of Mr. William Sharp, who ever approved himself the most loyal, disinterested, and self-sacrificing of friends; and of Mr. Arthur Symons, who rendered her a valuable service after death by the admirable selection he made from her poetical writings.

Mathilde Blind's later poetry evinces more tendency than of old to a topographical inspiration, such an influence as that under which Platen wrote his sonnets to Venice, or Wordsworth's when inditing his to the river Duddon. Natural scenery had always been an inspiration to her, but had rather pervaded than shaped such poems as "St. Oran." In these latter volumes particular scenes became the express subjects of the poems, especially if Italian, Egyptian, or appertaining to the pastoral scenery of England, and the exquisite delight she received from natural beauty was not stored up for literary purposes, but overflowed into her correspondence. Writing from Egypt in 1894 to Mrs. Wolfsohn, she says:—

"It is a comfort to feel that, in spite of much loneliness, I still have you and others left whose love is with me. Perhaps the sunshine and brightness of Egypt were the best antidote to the grief caused me by Madox Brown's death. But, perhaps owing to mental as well as physical causes, Egypt has not quite realised my expectations. The long rides in the desert did me more good