ABSTRACT
Its subject matter is simple. A soldier is in gaol under sentence of death for murder. One of his fellow prisoners records the effect upon himself on learning the soldier’s fate, his growing horror as the morning of execution draws near, the terrors of the night immediately preceding it, and the emotions that follow. The document is authentic: hence its worth. The poem is not great, is not entirely trustworthy; but in so far as it is the faithful record of experiences through which the writer-C.3.3.—has passed, it is good literature. According to its sincerity so is it valuable: where the author goes afield and becomes philosophic and selfconscious and inventive he forfeits our interests; but so long as he honestly reproduces emotion he holds it. To feel and chronicle sensations is his peculiar gift: in the present work, at any rate, he is not a thinker. Nor should he have attempted humour. Such a stanza as this is not the way in which to depict the horrors of hanging:
It is sweet to dance to violins When Love and Life are fair: To dance to flutes, to dance to lutes, Is delicate and rare: But it is not sweet with nimble feet To dance upon the air!
