WEATHERED ROCKS.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20494, 12 March 1932, Page 13

WEATHERED ROCKS.

Poetry is a music made of images Worded one in the similitude of another; Chaining- the whole universe to the e ecstasies k Of humanity, its anguish fervour. But there shall be no equivalent 0 Of these fire-wrought and waterl" worn boulders, ? Tattoo'd and stained, silvered, deni- ? grated, 3 Rusted and empurpled by exposure •' To ocean-salted south and east winds, 1 Unremittingly sweeping' over these ■ headlands. e s Since, in the bosom of this volcano, L " The fires abated, died down, and r were exhausted, Fretted by aurelian and grey moulds, Encrusted with frilled lichens, pole, j glaucous; -i Giving pittance to lissom tussock grasses And twisted brambles, from invisible ] erevasses. g Rock, thorn, cryptogam, each has t significance, 1 Each make? contribution to eternal 1 parabole; And we arc kin, compounded of the same elements, ; Alike proceeding to An unknown [ goal; j And they are secret (o themselves as ? I Am secret to myself, And,.l think they have no part in 1 niy dole. And shall another estimate the in- j fluence Of mass, form, colour, on individual i ; soul, ' Or relate my smitten heart-throb, Beholding these things, to cosmic \ diastole'/ But, deep is the given peace, when in--1 formed particular | Has respect unto the dignity of the whole. —E.H. Miss Rebecca "West, in an article on the achievement and character of LyttOn j Strachoy, recently dead, insists that ! he judged the world by what was In himself, and—a somewhat strained corollary—"loved personality because his own personality was lovable." She found in him a harmony and a simplicity unsuspected by the world, which is "not so harmonious, nor so simple, as it believes itself;' and being disconcerted by him, often, rotorted with the charge of over-sophistication, evidence of which it was quick to find and pleased to accept: When a year or two ago, some young bloods organised an exhibition of daubs made blind, fold under the pretence that they were the works of a brilliant young artist, great play was made by the Press with the news that Lytton S/trachey had purchased two of the paintings. Here, it was announced, -\Va» sophistication falling over itself, a palate so refined that it had become perverse and insensitive. Tet the truth, which had been piped to a companion as they passed round the gallery, was very different, "And does this poor young man really think hi> can paint! Oh, poor younar man! Poor young man! If his pictures are cheap one must buy ono! Oh. poor young man, one must buy two! Oh, poor, poor, young man—" The episode should be remembered by all those who, envious of brilliance, try to And mean interpretations for the wotlc and life of Ijytton Strache.v. The Hungarian critic, (iustav Crenyi, in an article in "Die Litcratur" on current literary activity in his country, takes issue with tlio late rector of the University of Budapest, Dr. N6k&m, a dermatologist by profession, who, in a public lecture, explained the character of the art of Heine, Nietzsche, Maupassant, and the Hungarian Ady, by their infection with ugly diseases, Crfinyi contends that a number of such recent studies have been prompted by the jealousy which certain dull pedants feel for nven of genius, which moves them to attribute the superiority of gifted men to vices and defects.