Page:The Jail, Experiences in 1916.pdf/8

 and ironical by turns. To a certain extent they suggest the influence of Heine and the Russian Byronists. but they are sufficiently subjective to acquit Machar of being a mere copyist of other poets' emotions. The second and third parts of "Confiteor" appeared in 1889 and 1892 respectively, and from then onwards Machar, with his reputation fully established, issued numerous volumes both in verse and prose. In the "Summer, Winter, Spring and Autumn Sonnets", published between 1891 and 1893, Machar reveals the same dual capacity as lyric poet and ironical observer as in his earlier books, together with technical skill in imparting variety to the sonnet form. "Tristium Vindobona" (1893) is a book of elegies, in whose title Machar suggests an analogy between Ovid, exiled among the Goths, and himself, performing uncongenial duties in the anti-Czech atmosphere of Vienna. It should here be mentioned that Machar's attitude towards nationalism is not narrow and chauvinistic. He has always severely condemned the false patriotism which parades beneath empty catchwords and is without true human ideals, but he is also a decided opponent of social injustice, and for that reason he was always a severe critic of the Viennese authorities for their treatment of the Czechs. Machar's hatred of social injustice was the dominant motive in his next two books of poems, "Here roses ought to bloom" and "Magdalena", both published in 1894, and both concerned with the position of woman in human society. The former book consists of a series of "lyric dramas" depicting various phases in the lives of women, in which sombre colours predominate. The melancholy tone of this book recurs in "Magdalena", a narrative poem dealing with the problem of the fallen woman who attempts to live down her past, but is defeated by the petty traditions of a provincial town. Among Machar's miscellaneous collections of verse may be mentioned "The Warriors of God", the ironical title of a