Page:Poetry, a magazine of verse, Volume 7 (October 1915-March 1916).djvu/60

POETRY: A Magazine of Verse Beyond dispute his command of the sheer mechanics of quantitative verse can be looked on with nothing but envy. I have a grave respect for any man who is restless and persistent in the study and honor of his craft.

There are two poems in his last book which it is better to quote than to comment on. The first shows well what he has won from untiring practice of quantitative metres, and from, I should think, the reading of Middle-English. It is as follows:

What fairy fann'd my dreams
 * while I slept in the sun?—

As if a flowering tree
 * were standing over me:

Its young stem strong and lithe
 * went branching overhead,

And willowy sprays around
 * fell tasseling to the ground,

All with wild blossom gay
 * as is the cherry in May

When her fresh flaunt of leaf
 * gives crowns of golden green.

The sunlight was emmesh'd
 * in the shifting splendor

And I saw through on high
 * to soft lakes of blue sky:

Ne'er was mortal slumber
 * so lapt in luxury.

Rather—Endymion—
 * would I sleep in the sun

'Neath the trees, divinely,
 * with day's azure above,

When my love of beauty
 * is met by beauty's love.