THE LOOKING -GLASS
37
that a comic song would
to a great oratorio .
Why
Jesus Wept "
is
a satiric
farce,
“ Rosa
Mundi "
a
great love anthem , almost we might say a Wagnerian
opera
in
rime, and comparable
in many respects
in
its
continuous
though
irregular
symphony
to
the
“
Lycidas
"
of
Milton
.
Yet
,
nevertheless
,
“
Why
Jesus Wept
"
is
the
more characteristic
of
the
two
,
and certainly
the most iconoclastic
of
any
.
In
“
Orpheus
,
"
Books
I
and
II
,
we find
a
poetic
regularity
almost
strictly
adhered
to
,
not
so
,
how
ever
,
in
Book
III
,
and
in
“
The Argonauts
.”
But
it
is
not
till
we get
to
“
Rodin
in
Rime
”
that
we find
practically
every
sonnet
and quatorzain
possessing
some
infringement
of
the
orthodox
rules
of
poetry
;
yet
it
cannot
be
said
that
these
poems
,
chiefly
in
iambic
verse
broken
by
the
occasional
introduction
of
another foot
,
usually
an
anapaest
,
read unmusic
ally
on
account
of
its
presence
.
Take
for
instance
:
Cloistral seclusion
of
the galleried pines
Is
mine
to
-
day
:
these groves are
fit
for Pan
O
rich with Bacchic frenzy
,
and his wine's
Atonement for the infinite woe
of
man
!'
Here
“
cloistral
”
is
a
spondee
;
“
eried
pines
,”
an
(
imperfect
)
anapaest
;
and
so
on
.
Again
in
“
La Fortune
"
:
“
Hail
,
Tyche
!
From the Amalthean horn
Pour forth the store
of
love
!
I
lowly bend
Before thee
:
I
invoke thee at the end
When other gods are fallen and put
to
scorn
.
Thy foot
is
to
my lips
;
my sighs unborn
Rise
,
touch
and curl about thy heart
;
they spend
1
W.
E.
Henley
,
Rodin
in
Rime
,
vol
.
iii,
p
.
119
.