R,CHARD MONCKTON MILNES was born in the year - OUDL Home

124 V. Sackville-WestHere's cause: the woman's superfluity;and for the cure, why, if it were the law,say, every year, in due percentages,balancing them with men as the times need,to kill off female infants, 'twould make room;and some of us would not have lost too much,losing life ere we know what it can mean.You may say that that is not poetry; you may say thatit reminds you of the remark passed on a novel of acertain type, also by a woman, 'Good, but powerful'.But at least we must concede that it is the vigorous expressionof a woman who was deeply concerned with thelot of women throughout her life. It is just worth noting,in passing, that Mrs Webster printed her blank versewithout capitals at the beginning of the lines. We havegrown accustomed to this to-day, but in 1870 MrsWebster was criticised for her eccentricity, and was toldthat 'to do this with English poetry was a great mistake'.Mrs Webster's talent was not confined to these blankversepieces, which she probably regarded as vehicles forexpressing her sociological opinions rather than as poetry.She was also the author of several plays, and of severalother books of poems, in one of which, called A Book ofrhyme, she includes English stornelli, after an Italianverse form which had taken her fancy. I should like toread you a lyric, from her book called Yu-pe-ya's Lute,published in 1874, which I think is pretty enough todeserve a place in anthologies:Too soon so fair, fair lilies;To bloom is then to wane;The folded bud has stillTomorrow at its will;Blown flowers can never blow again.Too soon so bright, bright noontide;The sun that now is highWill henceforth only sinkTowards the western brink;Day that's at prime begins to die.