The Star in the West

THE LOOKING-GLASS 35 Euripides . Crowley does the same, as we see in “ The Tale of Archais , ” also in “ The Mother's Trag edy ” and “ The Fatal Force ” ; but in these two latter dramas with this important difference , that instead of applying Greek style to Greek scenery , he applies it to a totally different end , namely to the expres sion of modern surroundings , or to his own in trinsic ideas , as in the last -named play , which , even more so than in “ The Mother's Tragedy " is , as we shall see later on , a subtle discount on present -day morality . What Beardsley and Whistler did for art , Crowley is now doing for poetry . Beardsley , especially , suc ceeded Rossetti just as Crowley is now superseding Swinburne . A poetic iconoclast to the very backbone , we find Crowley , especially in his later works , break ing away from every poetic convention and restraint . At first it makes itself apparent in “ The Star and the Garter ,” which was unwound from that same tangled skein from out of which Browning had ravelled “ Fifine," and then , in the full power of manhood , in “ Why Jesus Wept ” ; which one day will find its historic niche in the temple of Poetry , somewhere between the “ Hudibras ” of Butler and the “ Endy mion ” of Keats . Though Crowley , as can be clearly seen throughout his works , is not only a great admirer but also a dis ciple of Browning's , he nevertheless vigorously attacks that great master's cacophony and wilful obscurity of meaning , in that eccentric curiosity of diction “ The Sword of Song ,” in which our ears are assailed by the most monstrous diversity of ‘ noises , following in a Rather than Sophocles or Aeschylus .