Since
that time his radical, revolutionary sympathies have had time to cool,
and in each succeeding volume he has appeared more sedate, conservative,
_bourgeois_.[25] In a later volume of poems this transformation is half
symbolically indicated in the title, "Tempered Melodies." Nor is it to
be denied that his melodies have gained in beauty by this process of
tempering. There is a wider range of feeling, greater charm of
expression, and a deeper resonance. Half a dozen volumes of verse which
he has published since ("Songs of the Ocean," "Venezia," "Vines and
Roses," "Youth in Verse and Song," "Peder Tordenskjold," "Deep Chords")
are of very unequal worth, but establish beyond question their author's
right to be named among the few genuine poets of the latter half of the
nineteenth century; nay, more than that, he belongs in the foremost rank
of those who are yet surviving. His prose, on the other hand, seems
aimless and chaotic, and is not stamped with any eminent
characteristics. A volume of short stories, entitled "Wild and Tame,"
partakes very much more of the latter adjective than of the former.
Pages:
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256