Page:The Jail, Experiences in 1916.pdf/9

 volume of incisive and epigrammatic political satire which followed in 1897, and the "Satiricon" of 1904, which is similar in character.

The publication of "Golgotha" in 1901 marks the beginning of a new series of poems, upon which Machar has worked intermittently ever since. He is now no longer concerned with the personal emotions of his earlier lyrical period, but is attracted by the collective destinies of mankind as displayed in the drama of history. But Machar's conception of historical characters and events is nevertheless often strongly affected by his personal bias. Thus. "In the Glow of the Hellenic Sun" and "The Poison from Judaea", both published in 1906, by their very titles indicate Machar’s sympathies for classical antiquity on the one hand, and his anti-clerical sentiments on the other. During the year 1911 they were followed in rapid succession by "The Barbarians" (early Middle Ages), "The Pagan Flames" (renaissance) and "The Apostles" [reformation period). No further additions to the series have yet been published.

This gallery of historical portraits and perspectives deserves special notice by reason of the vividness with which Machar has reconstructed scenes and depicted figures from the most diverse periods and of the most diverse types. Taken as a whole it forms an outlined epic of mankind's development, the component parts of which are short but often extremely effective dramas. Thus, "On Golgotha" in the first volume of the series, is a graphic and unconventional narrative of Christ's crucifixion, written in blank verse of great poetical beauty. Machar himself says that the music of Beethoven was ringing within him when he wrote this poem, and this well accounts for the stately cadences in which the scene is enacted to its unrelenting conclusion. And without analysing in detail the series as a whole, it is sufficient to refer in general terms to the admirable manner in which Machar visualises Babylonian kings, Chinese