ing, the same in all ages and almost in all races. The brave man's beats as strongly in battle to-day, the coward's stands as suddenly still in the face of dan5 ger, boys and girls still play with love, men and women still suffer for love, and the old still warn youth and manhood against love's snares - all that and much more comes from depths not reached by o civilizations nor changed by fashions. Those deep waters the real novel must fathom, sounding the tide-stream of passion and bringing up such treasures as lie far below and out of sight out of reach of the individual in most cases until the art of the story-teller makes him feel that they are or might be his. Cæsar commanded his legionaries to strike at the face. Humanity, the novelist's master, ids him strike only at the heart. ing the course of true love into very tor- From The Novel: What It Is, 1893. EDITH MATILDA THOMAS (1854-1925) The leader of the feminine poets of the later period unquestionably is Edith M. Thomas, born at Chatham, Ohio, and educated in the Normal lustitute of that state. Her earliest work began to appear in the early eighties, and encouraged by Helen Huut Jackson, who was the first to discover her powers, she issued her first volume, A New Year's Masque and Other Poems, in 1885. Since then twelve other volumes of her poems have appeared, the latest, The Flower from the Ashes, in 1915. Her home after 1888 was in New York. Stedman gave her high praise: 'Her place is secure among the truest living poets of our English tongue.' In style her work is classical-Greek often in its restraint and its chaste finish -remote and timeless, and yet in spirit and message it is always truly American. To upland pasture lead his bleating charge; There is no shag upon the stunted thorn, No hoof-print on the river's silver marge; Nor broken branch of pine, nor ivied spear,Pan has not passed this way for many a year. () tremulous elf, reach me a hollow pipe, 1 Copyright by Houghton Mifflin & Co. 25 20 But surely, unseen is their chieftain - no plume streaming white in their vanAh, surely, unseen is their chieftain, and ever a greater than man! We move as their watchword commands; but a watchword more potent they hear. The clang of the battle for us, for them music aerial-clear! (So he who drank poison at Athens still heard the sweet voice of the law, As the wild Corybantes the flutes of their deity listened in awe.) They follow a deathless Idea-leader of leaders for aye, 25 That liveth, and wageth its strife, though we remain but a day; THE LEADERS 1 Hail to the leaders of men, the sovereigns by grace of God, Who flinch not and fear not to venture where none before them have trod! 1 Copyright by Houghton Mifflin & Co. That chooseth the man most fit, and setteth him foremost in fray. Hail to the leaders of men, who know and their leader obey! Yet we too, the liegemen we too, though our sight exceed not a span Follow a deathless Idea, clothed in a puissant HENRY CUYLER BUNNER (1855-1896) No other writer of the period was more versatile or more facile with his pen than H. C. Bunner. Opinions may differ as to whether he did his best work in prose or in poetry. In either case he chose most difficult literary forms.- the short story of the later French type and the dainty art forms of vers de societè. By profession he was an editor, editor of Puck from its establishment when he was twenty-two until his death at forty-one. He poured into its columns an enormous and surprising tide,- short stories, editorials, paragraphs, humor of every variety, poems, parodies, everything the comic paper knows. This was his day's work literature, however, was something different. The material for his books. like Airs from Arcady or Short Sires, he wrought with fastidious care. His final output was small, but like the work of Aldrich, it is exquisitely done. His lyrics, many of them in difficult French verse forms are perfect in their finished art, yet seemingly they are spontaneous outbursts. He was our chief maker of vers de société, our laureate of the trivial. Within that limited domain he has had no American rival. The lyricWritten on Valentine's Day' and the short story Father Anastatius' are here published for the first time. OLD FRENCH METRICAL FORMS [Within the last few months, the efforts of Messrs. Austin Dobson, Edmund Gosse, Robert Bridges, and others, to revive certain old metrical forms have excited considerable interest. These dainty refinements of versification date back to the times of the Trouvères and Troubadors. The Provençal and kindred tongues being rich in strong accents, their prosody is in perfect accordance with the Anglo-Saxon system of rhythm, and Mr. Dobson, in his latest volume, has proved that these meters may be used in English with exquisite effect. word or phrase (four syllables) repeated at the end of the second and third stanzas, forms the unrimed refrain. Apropos of refrains in general, it must be noted that a 5 slight shade of difference, in sentiment or verbal meaning, should be introduced at each repetition. In the Ballade, Rondel, and Triolet slight variations in the phraseology are permissible. The Rondel has fourteen eight10 syllable lines, on two rimes. The refrain is the two lines beginning the first quartrain, repeated at the end of the second, and again to close the final stanza of six lines. The Rondel here given is written on the plan of a re-arrangement introduced by Mr. Austin Dobson. The Triolet is a condensed Rondel. It has eight lines and two rimes and begins and ends with a two-line refrain, the first line being, moreover, repeated to form the 15 25 A PITCHER OF MIGNONETTE The following essays in the Chant Royal, Rondeau, Rondel, and Triolet forms may need a word of explanation. The Chant Royal has been called the 'final tour de force' of poetic composition. It was reserved 20 fourth.] for the celebration of divine mysteries, or for the exploits of some heroic race.' It is composed of five stanzas of eleven lines, all using the same set of five rimes, in the same order, and each ending with the refrain or burden. To this is added an Envoy of five or six lines (half the length of a stanza), ending also with the refrain, and beginning with an address to some dignitary or dignitaries, as Prince' or Barons.' The 30 Rondeau consists of thirteen iambic lines of eight or ten syllables. It has but two rimes, and is divided into three stanzas, of five. three, and five lines respectively. The initial [Triolet] A pitcher of mignonette, In a tenement's highest casement: Is a garden of heaven set, To the little sick child in the basement The pitcher of mignonette, In the tenement's highest casement. 5 'SHE WAS A BEAUTY '1 She was a beauty in the days Grandpapa, on his right knee bent, When Madison was President. And when your roses where hers went Shall go, my Rose, who date from Hayes, 10 I hope you'll wear her sweet content Of whom tradition lightly says: She was a beauty in the days When Madison was President. Scribner's Monthly, Feb., 1879. |