The Star in the West

THE LOOKING -GLASS 27 son's most famous work , yet differing in cadence , is “ The Blood Lotus .” Quaint carven vampire bats , unseen in curious hollows of the trees , Or deadlier serpents coiled at ease round carcases of birds unclean ; All wandering changeful spectre shapes that dance in slow sweet measure round And merge themselves in the profound , nude women and dis torted apes 1 Grotesque and hairy , in their rage more rampant than the stallion steed ; There is no help : their horrid need on these pale women they assuage .? Another poem that in parts reminds us of the “ In Memoriam ” is “ The Nameless Quest, ” such lines as : I was wed Unto the part , and could not grasp the whole .? breathe a great and similar doubt . As in many respects the agnosticism of Tennyson's “ In Memoriam " re sembles the atheistic free thought of FitzGerald's “ Omar Khayyam ,” so do both the above -mentioned poems , and the first is of similar metre , its quatrains containing , as those of the poet of Khorassán , flights of great power of thought ; the following five quatrains are well worth quoting : We weep them as they slip away ; we gaze Back on the likeness of the former days , The hair we fondle and the lips we kiss Roses grow yellow and no purple stays . . Why not with time ? To - morrow we may see The circle ended - if to - morrow be 1 Oracles , vol . ii, p . 13 . ? The Temple of the Holy Ghost , vol . i, p . 191 .