WHY NOT A WOMAN?

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1812, 26 July 1913, Page 9

WHY NOT A WOMAN?

THE POET LAUREATESHIP. . Since the death of Alfred Austin much flisoussion and conjecture hns taken place U3 to his successor, writes the London correspondent of the "Telegraph" on June 13. The name of Mrs. Alice Meynell has been repeatedly mentioned, and it is asserted by many that if the bays were to be rightly bestowed, the brow that bore them should be a woman's, and that the poetry of Mrs. Alico Meynell was alone .worthy. Such authorities on her work as Francis Thompson, George Meredith, John Ruskin, and William Sharp ("l ? iona Maeleod") must not bo overlooked. In this day of feminine unrest, it is rather remarkable 'that' a woman's poems find euch unanimous approval and admiration, William Sharp, declared, "In its class, I know of no nobler or more beautiful eonnet than 'Renouncement,' and I have coneidered so ever since the day, I first heard it, when Rosetti (who knew it by heart) repeated it to me, adding that it wag ouo of the three finest sonnets .writen by women." These are the lines of the sonnet; — I must not think of thee; and tired yet . 6trong, • I 6hun the thought that lurks in all delight— THe thought of thee—and in the blue Heaven's height, •And in the sweetest passage of a song.

Or, just before the fairest thoughts that throug . ; This breast, the thought of thee'waits, hidden yet bright; But it must never, never come in eight; I must stop short of thee the whole day "long. . But when sleep comes to close each difficult daj, .When night gives pause to the long ' watch. I keep, And all my bonds I needs must loose apart, , Must dolf my will as raiment laid away— With the first dream that comes with tho first sleep I run, I run, I am gathered to thy heart. The writer of these lines is a tall, graceful, slender woman) who has reached middle age, and her thoughtful, refined face and deeply expressive eyes attract one's attention immediately. She is of a most retiring disposition; disliking tho noise and bustle of the world, and happiest in her home surrounded by hor children. Mrs. Meynsll, when approached on the matter of the vacant laureateship, gave an impersonal opinion. "I don't think the laureateship ought to be abolished," she said, "I have seen it said that, because the office of court jester is --xtinct, the laureateship should bo allowed to lapse, too; but the comparison is eurely absurd. For there is no longer any

question of Coronation odes, or of poetry ■' to order being expected from the laureate at certain times. It is an honour, and an old and precious one, dating back to "rare Ben Jonson.' ' And ray feeling is that it was made a. great honour by the genius of Wordsworth and Tennyson, and it cannot be entirely spoilt by the mediocrity of Alfred Austin. Here in England we have h> few honours except titles. In. France they have the Legion, of Honour; but we have nothing to correspond to it. There is the, Order of Merit; but it, is conferred very rarely, and .only on persona of outstanding greatness. And I think it would be a pity to allow one of the few historic honours to lapse without any sufficient reason."/ ' In answer to tho question- as to thero being any reason why a woman should not be made laureate, Mrs. Meynell said, "I see no reason why a woman, if otherwise worthy, should be refuted an honour because of her sex. But you will not misunderstand me. My own name has been mentioned without my knowledge in tho matter, and I do not think I am widely enough known to be eligible, quito opart from my sex. There are some very clever young men writing just now, who will be the big men of the future. They have not done enough to be ripe for the laureateship yet. Mr. Alfred Noyes is very promising, and perhaps if the laureatesnip were my gift he would have It. Tho qualities for the honour would be e poet, nothing excepting that. No man who has ever written blasphemies or.im-. moralities ousht to be laureate."

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