It is an instance of this kind that we are now about to consider.
"The Strayed Reveller and other Poems," constitutes, we believe, the
first published poetical work of its author, although the following
would rather lead to the inference that he is no longer young.
"But my youth reminds me: 'Thou
Hast lived light as these live now;
As these are, thou too wert such.'"--p. 59.
And, in another poem:
"In vain, all, all, in vain,
They beat upon mine ear again,
Those melancholy tones so sweet and still:
Those lute-like tones which, in long-distant years,
Did steal into mine ears."--p. 86.
Accordingly, we find but little passion in the volume, only four
pieces (for "The Strayed Reveller" can scarcely be so considered)
being essentially connected with it. Of these the "Modern Sappho"
appears to us not only inferior, but as evidencing less maturity both
of thought and style; the second, "Stagyrus," is an urgent appeal to
God; the third, "The New Sirens," though passionate in utterance, is,
in purpose, a rejection of passion, as having been weighed in the
balance and found wanting; and, in the last, where he tells of the
voice which once
"Blew such a thrilling summons to his will,
Yet could not shake it;
Drained all the life his full heart had to spill;
Yet could not break it:"--
he records the "intolerable change of thought" with which it now
comes to his "long-sobered heart.
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