A JOURNAL KEPT IN THE COUNTRY. 89 



' Tangled in toils of your tresses 

 And fast in your fringe ' 



style ; something a little more recondite. There's 

 any amount of it in all good verse, but you have 

 to look for it. And then there's what you may 

 call ' half-rhymes,' like that in the ' Lady of 

 Shalott ' 



' Only reapers, reaping early 

 In among the bearded barley, 

 Hear a song that echoes cheerly.' 



And then there's repetition, and antithesis of sound, 

 and recurrent vowels, in Coleridge's way; and all 

 sorts of small elegancies like that." 



I suggested that he should give me a sample of 

 his ideal verse ; whereupon he recited the following 

 doggerel, or something like it 



" On the land of the semi-detached 

 The Spring has made sweet seizure ; 

 The gate of the blowing South's unlatched 

 And noon's a golden pleasure, 

 Good for marking the almond-blossom 

 Light in light on the liquid azure, 

 Bees a-sprawl in the crocus' bosom, 

 Sparrows sparring or matched." 



" Something like that," he says ; " no fine thoughts 

 to disguise the workmanship. And on this plan, 

 you can make as much out of the Green Park or 



