ae-Raphaelitism perhaps
appears rather too strongly, though very agreeably to some. But
"Dreamland," "Winter Rain," "An End," "Echo," the exquisite song for
music "When I am dead, my dearest," and the wonderful devotional pieces
called "The Three Enemies" and "Sleep at Sea," with many charming
sonnets, adorned a volume which, on the whole, showed more of the
tendencies of the school than any which had yet appeared. For it was
less exclusively mediaeval than Mr. Morris' _Defence of Guinevere_, and
very much more varied as well as more mature than Mr. Swinburne's _Queen
Mother_ and _Rosamond_. _The Prince's Progress_ showed a great advance
on _Goblin Market_ in dignity and freedom from mannerism, and the minor
poems in general rivalled those in the earlier collection, though the
poetess perhaps never quite equalled "Sleep at Sea." The contents of _A
Pageant, and other Poems_ were at once more serious and lighter than
those of the two former books (for Miss Rossetti, like her brother, had
a strong touch of humour), while the _Collected Poems_ added some
excellent pieces. But the note of the whole had been struck, as is
usually the case with good poets who do not publish too early, at the
very first.

The most distinguished members, with the exception of Mr. and Miss
Rossetti, of this school are still alive; and, as it did not become
fashionable until about five-and-twenty years ago, even the junior
members of it have in but few cases been sent to that majority of which
alone we treat. Mr. John Addington Symonds, an important writer of
prose, began early and never abandoned the practice of verse, but his
accomplishment in it was never more than an accomplishment. Mr. Philip
Bourke Marston, son of Dr. Westland Marston, the dramatist, was highly
reputed as a poet by his friends, but friendship and compassion (he was
blind) had perhaps more to do with this reputation than strict
criticism. The remarkable talents of Mr. Gerard Manley Hopkins, which
could never be mistaken by any one who knew him, and of which some
memorials remain in verse, were mainly lost to English poetry by the
fact of his passing the last twenty years of his life as a Jesuit
priest. But the most characteristic figure now passed away was Arthur
O'Shaughnessy (1844-81). He was an official of the British Museum, and
published three volumes of poetry--_The Epic of Women_ (1870), _Lays of
France_ (1872), and _Music and Moonlight_ (1874)--which were completed
i