GOLDFINCHES AT RYME INTRINSICA 227 



thcv arc now becominf:^ in imitation of tlicir French 

 neighbours, can surpass or even ccjual us in sympathy 

 for the inferior creatures. It is the language wliich 

 makes the difference : the Spanish is better suited to the 

 expression of tender sentiments of that kind. The verse 

 flow^s more freely, with a more natural music than ours ; 

 it is less mechanical and monotonous in sound, and as 

 it is less distinct from prose and speech in form we are 

 never so conscious of the artistry. The feeling appears 

 more genuine, more from the heart, because of the 

 seeming artlessness. We see it all in this little goldfinch 

 poem and say at once that it is untranslatable, or that 

 it would be impossible to render its spirit, because in 

 English verse the tender feeling, even if it could be 

 expressed so delicately and beautifully, would not convey 

 the same air of sincerity. Swinburne could not do it, 

 which may seem a bold thing to say, seeing that he has 

 given a music to our language it never knew before. 

 It is a music which in certain supreme passages makes 

 one wonder, as if it did not consist in the mere cunning 

 collocation of words but in a magic power to alter their 

 very sound, producing something of a strange, exotic 

 effect, incomparably beautiful and altogether new in our 

 poetry. But great as it is it never allows us to escape 

 from the sense of the art in it, and is unlike the natural 

 music of Melcndez as the finest operatic singing is un- 

 like the spontaneous speech, intermingled with rippling 

 laughter, of a young girl with a beautiful fresh sparkling 

 voice. 



From Swinburne to Adelaide Anne Proctor is a long 



