MR. STEPHEN PHILLIPS AS A WRITER OF TRAGEDY 135 



the moments which are otherwise highly impassioned, and his weak- 

 ness is discovered only in the lighter portions of the dialogue. In 

 other words, while he has not yet achieved complete mastery, he is 

 weak where weakness is least fatal and strong where strength is most 

 indispensable. This general conclusion as to Ms poetic diction is, 

 I think, indisputable, so we need not bring forward any considerable 

 number of illustrative excerpts. When a metrical passage makes 

 itself a beautiful concomitant of one's thoughts on a great theme, 

 it is safe to speak of it as high poetry, and what one of the readers of 

 our plays will think of the passing of a young life from a sheltered 

 haven to sorrow's sea without recalling such lines as these ? 



And yet, Nita, and yet — can any tell 



How sorrow first doth come ? Is there a step, 



A light step, or a dreamy drip of oars ? 



Is there a stirring of leaves or ruffle of wings ? 



For it seems to me that softly, without hand, 



Surely she touches me. 



Or who will think of death's part in life without recalling the stimu- 

 lating rejection by Ulysses of Calypso's offer of immortality ? 



I would not take life but on terms of death. 

 That sting in the wine of being, salt of its feast. 

 To me what rapture on the ocean path 

 Save in the white leap and the dance of doom ? 

 O death, thou hast a beckon to the brave. 

 Thou last sea of the navigator, last 

 Plunge of the diver, and last hunter's leap. 



Again, there are few more poignant exclamations than this of Herod, 

 when his dazed mind half grasps the possibility that there has been 

 mischance to Mariamne: 



I'll re-create her out of endless yearning. 



And flesh shall cleave to bone, and blood shall run. 



Do I not know her, every vein ? Can I 



Not imitate in furious ecstasy 



What God hath coldly made ? I'll re-create 



My love with bone for bone, and vein for vein. 



The eyes, the eyes again, the hands, the hair, 



And that which I have made, that shall love me. 



