POEMS OF THOMAS TRAHERNE.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1054, 18 February 1911, Page 9

POEMS OF THOMAS TRAHERNE.

Ton years ago, by the merest chance,' tlio jioems of Thomr.3 Traherno omei-g----cdi-oiit of their long obscurity..; -.For: tunatcly for English literature', V' they' ovontually came to tho hands of, Mr. Bertram 1 Dobell; and lie, having by. a prolonged and baffling 'investigation discovered their authorshin, published tlio poems and enabled Traherno at last openly-to tako hij placo by tho sido of Herbert and Vaugnan. All this was sufficiently remarkable; ' and . although Mr. Dobell's manuscript-was plainly incomplete,, it was hardly to bo hoped that any moro of Trahorno's poems would turn up. But'out of a-hiding-filaca perhaps , moro surprising than tho rubbish of a second-hand bookstall a new and complete. manuscript of Trahorno's poems has at last como to light -r-out or tho British MuseumJ .whpro it .has. been easily accessible for a hundred years, fully ! catalogued, author's' name. and all; * for anyone to see. y It is as if tli'o fato which has been so long concealing Traherno had borrowed tjio method .of Poe's "Purloined' Letter." -.The lesion, perhaps, .ti-ill not bo altogether lost; futuro;seekers for buried literary t'reasuro may b'o recommended to begin at tho'most obvious place—at tho catalogues of-.th'd British.Miispum. Howove'ri' all is at last''well'• ivitli* Triihorrio's'' poems; wo : havo. .tliem now; in all probability, cortipltto. r Mr, H. J. Bell, their second discoverer, has'edited.' aiid • published tliem 1 ; throuijh '. the Clarendon Press,: uiidejr. tho titlo given them.iin- tlio now:• manuscriDt,. htnie's Poenis of. script .i'4Ti><st eotfcelv . Satisfactory'.'s It is.'.in, the - hr.nd- of: 'J,')i<jm(is, Tralieriie's brother 'Philip,, and he seems .to ; havo taken 'somo; liborties.'"u\t. any. rate, his, version continually differs from that published by Mr. Doboll; and the new readings aro almost always less distinguisehd than tho old, as if tlioy were due to\a brain timid of strangeness in poetio diction. There seems to. bo little doubt .that' Philip' Traherno" prepared his brother's poem? for tho 'press„after tho death of tno latter;' but there seems alsoi. to.'bo mo doubt that ihe-.pqems as:n:wholo:ivcrj never printed till now.But" thb-main importance in Mr! H.'J.' Bqll's remarkablo .--publication" '>i?; ; of: cbiirsp',;'.in' tho now poems it cQntainsiMaiiy of these aro quito as beautiful; as thoso with which wo aro all now familiar ; but; as might havo been' expected, they do liot givo us any new aspect of his. genius, and they will add' iiothing to. his reputation. 5 Traherno is much mbro/of a'.cautTvo, hallopn' than i-cithct-Herbert or Vaughan, to; say'nothing yf Crashaw. Ho keeps at a tonstant high level—niuch moro" constant than most mystical poets;;hut his tether, though' it is a-long one,\is rigid. It would havo been' extromely astonishing if- the new pooms had contained any- flights -much, above tho 'range of tho old; and, fortunately for our critical perspicacity, they do not.—"Manchester Guardian."