Page:The Dial (Volume 68).djvu/645

"I have long had a scheme for bringing out an Anthology of French verse. Poets of To-day and Yesterday—from after Hugo and Musset and not including them, to the present day. Each poet would be preceded by a short notice.

In the idea of the short notice and in the period traversed the book would thus resemble Walch’s great three volume work—but in no other way.

(1) There would be a larger and very different choice of the more important people and none of the pages of dreary rot by the great unknown.

(2) The criticisms at the beginning would be original and not borrowed.

(3) The whole book would not be more than one volume."

And here is a third suggested volume, some materials for which may perhaps have been found among the papers which he left:

"I have, it is true, a vague scheme for a book. I have quaint ideas on most things—literature of course, but also current politics—and a million other things. I find that exile makes it useless trying to work those ideas up into articles and also that if I do turn them into articles all my dear ideas become heavy and dull. I don't for instance a bit want to write a long review on H. G. Wells. But I do want to say and state my opinion for posterity that his latest work is pompous drivel and that Mr. Polly is one of the best things ever written in any language

I might call the book Poet's Porridge and should write it very quickly. Under headings Literature, Politics, etc., it wauld consist of little brief paragraphs of rather pithy comment. You may not know that I am a violent Philhellene: that will come in also. (I am writing a magnificent coronation ode for King Constantine.)

Just mention the idea to Goschens will you. Then if they'd like to see a bit, I'll scrape together a few pages and send them as a specimen. There is something novel about a Poet damning round on current events: only, of course, I ought to be better known than I am to get a hearing."

His last letter to me from Montana is undated like the others, but since it appears to have been written after the issue of The King of Alsander, it was probably sent early in 1914.