The Star in the West

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 .