Page:The Poet's Chantry pg 100.jpg

l00 experience of this time, vibrates with a poignancy almost insufferable. Wakened by the perfume of his wife's azalea flower, and momentarily oblivious of his loss, the poet suffers a strange repetitional agony:

Almost equally pathetic were Patmore's efforts to be "mother and father, too," to his six young children, his impatience at infantine perversity, and the bitter self-accusings which followed. One of the best known among his shorter odes, "The Toys," traces its source back to the rocky path of those sad days. Rocky enough in all truth it was, yet upon its way one flower blossomed into bloom—Emily Honoria, the poet's eldest daughter—rising as best she might to be care-taker of the little family, companion and confidante to the father himself.

Coventry Patrnore's own health had become so much impaired by the long strain of anxiety and