24 
but the run of the English words makes us rather hear 1t 
thus— 
Now || lét thé work_| of thé smith | try stréngth | with 
thé arms | 6f Immort | als 
and so continually. 
But this, I fear, grows tedious. Let me end with a 
few remarks on Kingsley’s poetic craftmanship in general. 
The impression left by a first swift reading of his poems is 
that their form is quite unstudied ; the words seem to have 
fallen into their places of themselves. And a second, more 
observant reading seems to confirm this impression. There 
is a freedom, almost a roughness, in his use of extra 
syllables, and it does look like carelessness when we find two 
pieces entitled ‘‘ Sonnet,’’ one of which has only thirteen, 
the other seventeen lines. But further study alters the 
impression. Whether Kingsley was essaying a bold (not 
wholly unparalleled) innovation, or whether he was actually 
ignorant of, or (more likely) careless about the technical 
ineaning of the word ‘‘ sonnet,’’ the workmanship of both 
pieces is excellent. Nor are the extra syllables let in at 
random, but in every case serve to adjust the sound to the 
sense and effect something that was desired. Dr. Bridge 
has pointed out that many of the poems would go well to 
music ; their progression follows what he calls the musical 
curve. ‘That might come by instinct, but instinct of that 
kind is generally the final result of long and patient 
apprenticeship to an art. And nearly all analogy goes to 
prove that the apparent ease of a writer has been gained by 
much taking of pains. So it was with Newman, so with 
Shelley. The account Kingsley gives in two letters, already 
mentioned, of the elaborate preparation he made for his 
experiments in classical metre points in the same direction. 
And the mere minutely the poems are examined the more 
frequent is the discovery of niceties which could only come 
from practice, and could hardly be achieved without patient 
correction of first drafts. Here is one example out of 
many. Lines may be found which do not at first sight 
scan easily. But when we read the poems in which they 
occur as poems are meant to be read, that is aloud, we find 
that, forgetting scansion, and putting the emphasis where it 
naturally falls, we get not merely a proper line but a very 
good one. ‘There is one such line in the ‘‘ Hunting Song ”’ 
already quoted : 
We cannot call the hounds off, and no shame to us. 
To the eye, and without the context, this appears 
awkward. Read it aloud where it stands in the poem; a 
slight emphasis falls naturally on the we, and the whole line 
runs off trippingly. 
