MEMOIR 



ONE can scarcely imagine any public appoint- 

 ment that must prove more irksome at times 

 than that of Poet Laureate. It is the Laureate's 

 function to celebrate triumphs in which he has borne 

 no part, to give expression to joys that quicken 

 not his pulse, and griefs that interfere no whit with 

 his digestion. Nimble imagination, a delicate ear 

 for rhythm, and a fluent vocabulary may serve to 

 save his credit ; but in most state poems how 

 plainly audible is the creak of machinery and the 

 throb of the pump. Most men of education might 

 acquire, an they willed, the craft cf stringing verses 

 upon almost any given theme. It is an elegant 

 exercise ; but true poetry flows from a more secret 

 source. 



''OtSa, said the Greek, to express what we mean by 

 " I know," using the preterite of e'lSw, " I see," because 

 to have seen and to know appeared to him, meant for 

 him, the same thing. Even so the poet must have 

 seefi — either in mental or material vision — before he 

 can know enough to utter his lay. In every language 

 amorous poetry, or at least poetry wherein love bears 

 a chief part, abounds beyond any other, for the reason 

 that every man worthy of the name has been in love 

 of one sort or another at one time or another. All 



XV 



