Oscar Wilde Part 19

And when we come to a line like--

"Against the pallid shield Of the wan sky the almond blossoms gleam"

we realise how thoroughly the praise would be deserved, and linger lovingly on the lilting music of the words and the curious j.a.panese setting of the picture evolved. The poem ends on a note like the drawing in of a deep breath of country air after a prolonged sojourn in towns.

"Why soon The woodman will be here; how we have lived this night of June."

In "Requiescat" quite a different note is reached. The poem was written after the death of a beloved sister; the sentiment rings true and the very simplicity of the language conveys an atmosphere of real grief that would have been entirely marred by the intrusion of any decorative or highly-coloured phrase. The choice of Saxon words alone could produce the desired effect, and the author has realised this and made use almost exclusively of that material. Nor was he ill-advised to let himself be influenced so far as the metre is concerned by Hood's incomparable "Bridge of Sighs," and it was not in the metre alone that he availed himself of that priceless gem of English verse--

"All her bright golden hair Tarnished with rust, She that was young and fair Fallen to dust."

is obviously inspired by

"Take her up tenderly, Lift her with care; Fashioned so slenderly, Young, and so fair!"

But, on the other hand, Hood himself might well have envied the exquisite sentiment contained in--

"Speak gently, she can hear The daisies grow."

The lines were written at Avignon, surely the place of all others, with its memories and its mediaeval atmosphere, to inspire a poem, the dignity and beauty of which are largely due to the simplicity of its wording.

During this period of travel we are struck by two things. Firstly, how deeply impressed the young poet was by the mysteries of the Catholic Faith and how his indignation flamed up at the new Italian _regime_; secondly, how apparent the influence of Rossetti is in the sonnets he then wrote.

His sympathies were all with the occupant of St Peter's chair.

"But when I knew that far away at Rome In evil bonds a second Peter lay, I wept to see the land so very fair."

and again

"Look southward where Rome's desecrated town Lies mourning for her G.o.d-anointed King!

Look heavenward! Shall G.o.d allow this thing Not but some flame-girt Raphael shall come down, And smite the Spoiler with the sword of pain."

In "San Miniato" the influence of Rome upon the young man's mind finds expression in words which might have been written by a son of the Latin Church.

"O crowned by G.o.d with thorns and pain!

Mother of Christ! O mystic wife!

My heart is weary of this life And over sad to sing again,"

he writes, and ends with the invocation--

"O crowned by G.o.d with love and flame!

O crowned by Christ the Holy One!

O listen ere the scorching sun Show to the world my sin and shame."

Nor can it be wondered at that the devotion to the Madonna which forms so essential a feature of the Catholic Faith should impress his young and ardent spirit as it does nearly every artist to whom the poetic beauty of this side of It naturally appeals.

The Pope's captivity moved him again and again to express his indignation in verse, and from his poem, "Easter Day" we can gather how deeply he was impressed both by the stately ceremonial at St Peter's and by the sight of the despoiled Pontiff. At this time also he seems to have been more or less yearning after a more spiritual mode of life than he has been leading, at least so one gathers from poems like "E Tenebris" in which he tells us that--

"The wine of life is spilt upon the sand, My heart is as some famine-murdered land Whence all good things have perished utterly And well I know my soul in h.e.l.l must be, If I this night before G.o.d's throne should stand."

That he had visions of a possible time when a complete change should be worked in his spiritual condition seems clear from the concluding lines of "Rome Unvisited."

"Before yon field of trembling gold Is garnered into dusty sheaves Or ere the autumn's scarlet leaves Flutter as birds adown the wold, I may have run the glorious race, And caught the torch while yet aflame, And called upon the Holy name Of Him who now doth hide His face."

Apart from the light these poems throw upon his mental and spiritual att.i.tude at that period, they are extremely interesting as revealing the literary influences governing him at the time. I have already referred to the resemblance between his sonnets and the more finished ones of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and this point cannot better be ill.u.s.trated than by placing the work of the two men in juxtaposition.

If we take, for instance, Rossetti's "Lady of the Rocks."

"Mother, is this the darkness of the end, The Shadow of Death? and is that outer sea Infinite imminent Eternity?

And does the death-pang by man's seed sustained In Time's each instant cause thy face to bend Its silent prayer upon the Son, while He Blesses the dead with His hand silently To His long day which hours no more offend?

Mother of grace, the pa.s.s is difficult, Keen as these rocks, and the bewildered souls Throng it like echoes, blindly shuddering through.

Thy name, O Lord, each spirit's voice extols, Whose peace abides in the dark avenue Amid the bitterness of things occult."

and compare it with "E Tenebris." We are at once struck with the same mode of expression, the same train of thought and the same deep note of pain in the two poems.

And again take Wilde's "Madonna Mia"--

"I stood by the unvintageable sea Till the wet waves drenched face and hair with spray, The long red fires of the dying day Burned in the west; the wind piped drearily; And to the land the clamorous gulls did flee: 'Alas!' I cried, 'my life is full of pain, And who can garner fruit or golden grain, From these waste fields which travail ceaselessly!'

My nets gaped wide with many a break and flaw Nathless I threw them as my final cast Into the sea, and waited for the end.

When lo! a sudden glory! and I saw From the black waters of my tortured past The argent splendour of white limbs ascend!"

and compare it with Rossetti's "Venetian Pastoral" and "Mary's Girlhood," and we can almost imagine that the painter was holding up pictures to inspire the young poet.

"Red underlip drawn in for fear of love And white throat, whiter than the silvered dove,"

might almost have been written by Rossetti himself.

More characteristically original are the lines--

"I saw From the black waters of my tortured past The argent splendour of white limbs ascend,"

from the "Vita Nuova," though one cannot fail to perceive a faint Baudelairian note.

"Where behind lattice window scarlet wrought and gilt Some brown-limbed girl did weave thee tapestry,"

at once reminds us of the Rossetti influence.

The poem itself shows considerable skill in construction and deftness in the moulding of the sentences, moreover, there is a freshness in the treatment of the theme that a less original writer would have found great difficulty in imparting. Here again we see the Catholic note as when he writes--

"Never mightest thou see The face of Her, before whose mouldering shrine To-day at Rome the silent nations kneel; Who got from Love no joyous gladdening, But only Love's intolerable pain, Only a sword to pierce her heart in twain, Only the bitterness of child-bearing."

There is one especially fine bit of imagery--

"The lotus-leaves which heal the wounds of death Lie in thy hand--"

which bears the very truest imprint of poetry.

With the poet's return to England, a reaction took place, and the sight of English woodlands and English lanes caused a strong revulsion of feeling.