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THE NINETIES"something of the experience of which Davidson'sA Ballad in Blank Verse is a vivid description. I havedwelt on this because I think that the best of Davidson'swork is not to be found in the ballads which excitedmost interest on their appearance, The Exodus fromHoundsditch and the more famous Ballad of a Nun andA Ballad of Heaven. Technically they are fine poems,the ballad measure moving with the passionate leapof Swinburne's At a Month's End, the imagery vividand the inspiration sincere:The adventurous sun took heaven by storm ;Clouds scattered largesses of rain ;The sounding cities rich and warm,Smouldered and glittered in the plain.The finest is probably A Ballad of Heaven, for intothe tragedy and the vindication of the poor poetand dreamer Davidson put his own experience andlongings:Listen, my love, my work is done ;I tremble as I touch the page,To sign the sentence of the sunAnd crown the great eternal age.The slow adagio begins ;The winding-sheets are ravelled outThat swathe the minds of men, the sins,That wrap their rotting souls about.The dead are heralded along ;With silver trumps and golden drums,And flutes and oboes keen and strong,My brave andante singing comes.In these fine verses the overstrained note is neverthelessaudible. Davidson's most enduring contributionto English lyrical poetry is not these, but his simpler,139