WCP2606

[1]¹

From F. W. H. Myers

Leckhampton House,

Cambridge.

April 20 / [18]94²

My Dear Wallace

Thankyou much for your very interesting letter of April 15. Unless you tell me to the contrary, I propose to [1 word illeg.] ^{in Proc S P R3} some of the instances[?] in w[hich] you distinguish between free[?] natural suggestion[?] & Wiesmannism inheritance of acquired faculties⁴.

I have cut[?] for the Arena⁵ man's 'Aeoeology' — a monstrous name! — & may perhaps return to the subject when I have read that —

I[n] my remark [1 word illeg.] from the special character of the case I can't put it [1 word illeg.] that our own Royal Family speak in a characteristically German way; altho[ugh] at least in the case of the late Duke of Albany⁶, they had not [2] learnt German in early [1 word illeg.] — the same peculiarit[y] is [1 word illeg.] in some (not all) of the Rothschild⁷ family —

I have also noticed ^a characteristically French mode of speech in some English speaking persons of ^partial French ancestry[.]

Prof Eimer⁸ in a book whose name [1 word illeg.] adduces similar observations with respect to the special dialect of Jena⁹ — However I should indeed be impar Congressus Achilli¹⁰if I attempted to argue on points connected with Origin of Species¹¹.

I [1 word illeg.], then, to the soi disant¹² Poe¹³ poems — I do admire Poe very much; & I think the poems have in them enough of Poe's _style to render it not incredible that [3]¹⁴ they sh[oul]^d. be in some sense the utterances of his delivered spirit. Somewhere I have seen, I think, a more striking — I will not say imitation but repercussion¹⁵ of Poe I think the also ascribed to his spirit. I think one stanza ran:

No grasp of thine arms can [1 word illeg.] him

He dwells in no temple apart;

The height of the heavens cannot [1 word illeg.] him, —

And yet he is here in thy heart; —

He is here & he shall not depart —

So much I far I can follow [2 words illeg.] — But on the other hand I must say that I do not consider that the Lizzie Doten¹⁶ poems have the indefinable magic of the best Poe poems of Poe, of Annabel Lee¹⁷, & the few other exquisite matches[.]

And to your challenge to name other short (modern) poems w[hich]. I regard as inferior in concepting [sic] language rhyme & rhythm w[ould]. reply with a long list. I will mention a few over the page —

All the same, both my wife¹⁸ & I are very grateful for 'Poems of the Inner Life'¹⁹;

— & I am yours always | F W H Myers²⁰ [signature]

[4]²¹

Tennyson22	Browning23
[To] Virgil	(parts from) Saul
Vastness	Rabbi Ben Ezra
(obscure) The Voice of the Peak	Death in the [1 word illeg.]
(a poetical idea) Sir Galahad	Prospice
Wages	Grammarian's Funeral
(a pretty fancy) The Voyage	Love among the Ruins
Crossing the Bar	&c
(a [1 word illeg.] written fragment) The Human Cry
(the same) The Higher Pantheon
&c
Rosetti24
Willowwood
A Portrait
&c
Swinburne25
The Garden of Proserpine
&c
Trench26
The Monk & the Bird[?] [The Monk and Sinner?]
W. Morris27
Love is enough; which you deemed him[?]
a [1 word illeg.] -
&c
Shelley28
Hellas
When the lamp is shattered
&c
Keats29
Ode to Autumn &c
Wordsworth30
[Ode on] Intimations of Immortality
Ode to Duty	Resolution & Independence
Laodamia	'I have [1 word illeg.] the few'
The Cuckoo	[1 word illeg.] Castle Ode
My Highland Girl	&c &c