defects. Sometimes Gyulay is too biting and carries on his polemics for its own sake and not merely for the sake of truth. He is a consummate master of prose style. His chief works are an admirable and profound essay on Katona's Bánk bán, and Vörösmarty's Biography, in which he gives a wonderful description of the whole period. Among his orations and in his essays the best are those in which he spoke of his great friend Arany. In his short stories he does not excel in inventive power but in truthful characterisation, in style and in the realistic atmosphere with which he is able to surround an event. His best short story is The Old Mansion's Last Tenant, describing the gradual decay of an ancient estate as well as of its owner. Gyulay is also distinguished as a lyric poet. His style is simple and concise, without much passion. An element of reflection moderates or represses his sentiments, but these restrained feelings serve to reveal his strength. In some poems the critic is manifest and we detect here and there a note of bitterness. A peculiar quality of his subjective poetry is the rapid alternation of irony and emotion. One of the best known of his poems tells of an incident in the war for freedom. DEAR CAPTAIN MINE. " Oh Captain mine, oh Captain see ! " " What is it, lad, that aileth thee ?" " Look ! on your cloak a crimson patch ! " "Nay, heed it not, 'tis but a scratch." " Oh Captain, turn aside I pray, The is steep, your footsteps stay." way "I stumbled o'er a stone, perchance, Fix bayonets, men, The Honveds forward press ; not so, The Captain wounded by the foe; Onward, my lads," he cries again, And falls in death amid the slain.
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