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POETIC TRIFLES. |
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So stir the fire, and pour the wine, And let those sea-green eyes divine Pour their love-madness into mine :
I don't care whether 'Tis snow or sun, or rain or shine,
If we're together.
Mortimer Collins.
These minor efforts may result in original experiments, or in translations, adaptations, or even parodies of favourite passages from other writers. How many scores of times have Horatian gems been adapted to passing circumstances by busy men of the world in their leisure moments, just to see if they had retained their old skill in verse-making ! And the same cultured taste leads also to the turning of our own poetic beauties into other tongues.
Social verse has been aptly described as " the poetry of men who belong to society, who have a keen sympathy with the lightsome tone and airy jesting of fashion ; who are not disturbed by the flippances of small talk, but, on the contrary, can see the gracefulness of which it is capable, and who, nevertheless, amid all the froth of society, feel that there are depths in our nature which even in the gaiety of drawing-rooms cannot be forgotten. It is the poetry of bitter-sweet, of sentiment that breaks into humour, and of thought, which, lest it should be too solemn, breaks into laughter. When society becomes refined, it begins to dread the exhibition of strong feeling, no matter whether real or simulated. In such an atmosphere emotion takes |
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