THE LOOKING -GLASS
33
worthy pupil of the great
masters
we have had occa
sion
to
name .
Now
that I
have
pointed
out
these
certain influences , illustrating them by means of a few
quotations
, I intend to enter more into the history of his
poetry and also the place it fills in the history of English
poetry generally . This is not altogether
an easy matter .
Firstly , in selecting
distinctive
specimens it is difficult
not to help being guided
by individual taste ; secondly ,
the labour of sorting
the
finest
out of the fine
is a
work which needs no small powers of application
; and
thirdly , how often may not
the individual selector
be
wrong in his choice ?
But this latter difficulty
is easily
overcome by the reader , who has only to pick and choose
for himself ; the work of an appreciative
essayist being
merely
that of producing
a characteristic
display
of
what he considers
the most attractive
wares .
It is not
intended
here in any way to assume
immaculacy
for
our author , far from it, for faults
are to be found
here
as
in every
other work ,
great
or
small ,
false
rime
and metre , half a step left out
here
and there , some
times a whole
one : but taking these poems as a whole ,
these lapses are remarkably
few , and it must
also
be
borne in mind that in nearly every case they are inten
tional lapses from the orthodox rules of poetic cadence
and
metre .
One command
Crowley alone obeys , and
that is : that
all
verse
-
rime
,
rhythm
,
and
metre
—
to
be
considered
as
poetry
,
must
be
musical
.'
Without
As
a
good
example
I
will quote the following opening
lines
of
a
sonnet addressed
to
“
the Secretary
of
State
,”
by
Wilson
Bonchord
in
Poems
composed
in
Prison
:
When
Crime's
sad victim
has been tried and brought
Within the circle
of
the difficult
sphere
Which England's
penal statutes
appoint
him here
:
To expiate
by
patient
toil and thought
.
Neither the
second
nor
third
line
scans
;
nevertheless
the
P