NOTES

New Zealand Tablet, 12 June 1919, Page 26

NOTES

o i Pages from the Past” One of these days we shall have a fine new book by John Ayscough of which possibly a few stray copies may find their way to this benighted land of retro-■ grade schools and low ideals. We make no prophecy about the forthcoming book :• it has been already begun and, in part, appeared serially in the Month, that fine old English Catholic paper which by its breadth of views and moderness reflects a damning discredit on the anti-Irish and Jingo London Tablet. The new •. Ayscough book will not be a popular book, so do not say that we did not warn you in time; but it :will be a book such as every lover of literature will welcome, not 'only for, its own intrinsic worth, blit also for the sake of the interestingliterary reminiscences of the author. We will, be glad when we can place it on our shelves in a permanent shape, although "we shall by that time have read it eagerly in its serial form. We’, know half-a-dozen others who will be glad to lay hands on it lovingly and we wish we could say we knew hundreds of others but we know nothing of the kind. '- • Hardy and Meredith -. Jgj/o-ul' 1 A sample of John Ayscough’s critical acumen may be gathered from his causerie on . the literary merits. and contrasts of Hardy and Meredith- names which will appeal like a trumpet call to the cognoscenti: “Hardy and Meredith are philosophers, at least as truly as they .are novelists: but : they are peculiarly -: unlike. [En passant, how many of our readers have noticed Ayscough’s use of the colon They ate equally j intimate/ but Meredith is as 'subtle as Hardy ;is direct. I Their atmosphere 'is absolutely different. Meredith is ; all., lambent, fire ..of- meteoric vagary; his lightning is—-

■all summer lightning and is never meant to blast anybody. It never does, and. it only makes people skip. Hardy ’s is all cloudy emotion: ? he is most at ’ home in' storm " and - foul weather. 8 '- Meredith’s - attitude is 1 full of quip and I aloof amusement: he as' always enjoying himself even .When his creatures burn their fingers a little. Hardy suffers in' his creatures ’and 7 is (suicidally perhaps) slain"- by their tragedyt*’ the springs of his emotion, lie in the great deeps of ' human fate ; the sources of Meredith’s laughter are the incongruities of artificial . civilisation. . ; • . »<; Meredith’s genius was more . subtle than- Hardy’s and, as I dare to think, more sane: but Hardy is greater; less seductive in feature, .grander in stature. Like Emily Bronte he can be compared only with the Greek tragedians. He is not modern, > and therefore cannot become oldfashioned.” ,vf': ‘‘Meredith’s style, is polished to coldness, Hardy’s is plain though admirably suitable.” = ■. “Finally: one; is disposed, on completing one of Hardy’s novels, incontinently to begin another, and to go on till one has read them all. With Meredith the best way is to read a chapter or two, and attempt no more at once : one cannot adequately assimilate a great deal of him at a time.” Gerald Hopkins The Poet Laureate has recently published a volume of poems by his friend. Father Gerald Hopkins, S.J., who died before becoming famous. In a review in the Month Miss Guiney says of him “Not since Francis Thompson have we had so disturbing a poet. The vocabulary is almost purely Saxon, against that of the ‘Latinate Englishman’ : and this muse is for harmony and sculptural effect rather than for symbolism and for Catholic philosophy. Let there be no doubt about the worth of Father Hopkins’ literary work. It has winged daring, originality, durable texture, and the priceless excellence of fixing itself in the reader’s mind.” The newly revealed poet will not become popular. His untramelled imagery, his liberties with metre, his daring word-creations will prove even greater barriers to easy reading than Thompson’s. Above all he will never have a large audience of reader*-, he tells us himself that his verses are for the ear rather than for the eye-; and only when accent, slur, pause, and syncopation are given due attention can his verbal melody be realised.. He holds “sprung rhythm as the most natural of things,” using any number of weak or slack syllables for particular effects, so that “the feet are assumed to be equally long or strong, and their seeming equality is made up by pause or stressing.” He pleads “Read me with the ears, as I always wish to be read.” And melody in design is his aim all the time. Imagery and Word-Painting ' .- A few examples of his use of adjectives will illustrate how great an artist he is, and how he can fix an impression, even though it be with a strange phrase. When he speaks of the “wiry and white-fiery and whirlwind-swivelled snow” who cannot see a snowstorm on a windy day? The “bright boroughs” and “circlecitadels” of the stars the “heaven-gravel” flung by “hustling ropes of hail” ; the “mazy sands all waterwattled”; the swimming trout’s “rose moles all in a stipple”; the “burl” and “buck” of an angry wave, he strikes new notes, , but strikes them as a master. For him the thrush ! “Doth through the echoing timber so rinse and wring The ear, it strikes like lightnings to hear him .sing.” And as to the lark, he bids us “hear him ascend In . crisps of curl off wild winch whirl and pour And pelt music, till none’s left to spill nor spend !” Self-sacrifice and the giving To God, of all, things prized were themes dear to his priest’s heart. T When you have read . aloud , some ten r! times the following , lines : "which

might be written for' a girl making her vows as a nun their power and. melody will come .upon ,you : “Winning * ways. . ! .sweet 100k5.,, . .going .gallant, girlgrace,—;.m- eldiiislai at.-.odw -A Resign them, sign them;; seal them, send them; motion V them with breath, tA Cbdoj« h.. y And with sighs soaring, soaring sighs deliver .-a ixai v ? «.v I Them! Beauty-in-the ghost, deliver it; early now, . : long ; before death - - I. bnj- ■ A ’v V :;- Give 'beauty i back,, beauty, beauty, beauty back to God, beauty’s Self, and beauty’s Giver!” Nothing could well be .more apart from the classic conventionality - of Robert Bridges, who is the literary v sponsor* of the . volume and whose name is a guarantee of its worth. Crawshaw, Thompson, and now a third Catholic poet, are crowned by the cognoscenti. : -But ; not one of them will ever be popular. For one reason, because the world to-day has fallen too low to hear the beating of the wings of their Muse in her flight near tho stars.