21 
His own method was of course a delicate and perilous 
one. William Morris made the same venture more or less 
in ‘‘ The Earthly Paradise.’’ But though that book has 
many excellencies which Kingsley’s classical writings lack, 
the Greek spirit lives in it but strangely. Morris has been 
masterful and changed it. Kingsley has treated it more 
like a naturalist ; he has interfered as little as possible and 
just allowed the development to go on. If he had attempted 
many poems in this kind he could hardly have remained so 
obedient to his inspiration. But that was always his 
wisdom in poetry ; he never sang but when he must. The 
classical poems are indeed but two, ‘‘ Andromeda ”’ and 
“ Sappho.” ‘‘ Sappho ” is unfinished ; perhaps better so, 
for as it stands the thought and workmanship are flawless. 
The opening reminds one of Tennyson’s “ Oenone,’’ but 
Kingsley’s poem is more of a wild flower. 
She lay among the myrtles on the cliff ; 
Above her glared the noon ; beneath, the sea. 
Upon the white horizon Atho’s peak 
Weltered in burning haze ; all airs were dead ; 
The cicale slept among the tamarisk’s hair ; 
The birds sat dumb and drooping. Far below 
The lazy sea-weed glistened in the sun ; 
The lazy sea-fowl dried their steaming wings ; 
The lazy swell crept whispering up the ledge, 
And sank again. Great Pan was laid to rest ; 
And Mother Earth watched by him as he slept, 
And hushed her myriad children for a while. 
She lay among the myrtles on the cliff ; 
And sighed for sleep 
“© Andromeda ”’ is in hexameter metre. So is ‘‘ Down 
to the Mothers,’’ and another poem is in elegiacs, i.e., the 
verses go in pairs, first a hexameter then a pentameter. The 
teadiest way of explaining these terms is to print the two 
first lines of this piece with marks of scansion. 
“Wearily | strétchts thé | sand té thé | strge, and thé | 
surge ti thé |_cloadland ; 
Wearily | onward I | ride, || watching thé | watér 4 | lone.” 
The hexameter has six ‘“‘ feet ;’? the pentameter 
(measure of five) has two and a half feet repeated. Both 
metres come from the Greek; the hexameter is the 
measure of Homer, the elegiac of many short Greek poems 
and inscriptions. But there is a notable difference between 
Greek poetry and English, or indeed any of our modern 
European verse. We mark the rythm by the accent or 
stress we lay upon certain syllables ; thus water, aldne. 
The Greek marked it by the quantity of syllables, that is 
the time it takes to pronounce them carefully. In water 
