The doubt and pessimism that marked
the end of the nineteenth century find a voice in the bell-like strophes
with which the volume closes. It is the dramatist rather than the poet
who speaks here. The real message of the poet to mankind is ever one of
hope. Amid the problems that perplex and discourage, it is for him to
sing
Of what the world shall be
When the years have died away.
HISTORICAL NOVELS
IN default of such an admirable piece of work as Dr. Weir Mitchell's
"Hugh Wynne," I like best those fictions which deal with kingdoms and
principalities that exist only in the mind's eye. One's knowledge of
actual events and real personages runs no serious risk of receiving
shocks in this no-man's-land. Everything that happens in an imaginary
realm--in the realm of Ruritania, for illustration--has an air of
possibility, at least a shadowy vraisemblance. The atmosphere and local
color, having an authenticity of their own, are not to be challenged.
You cannot charge the writer with ignorance of the period in which his
narrative is laid, since the period is as vague as the geography.
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