By the same Author.
BEATRICE, AND OTHER POEMS.
Fcap. 8vo, 7s.
OPINIONS OF THE PRESS, Etc.
"… La distinction de votre Muse, soit qu'elle se développe dans des drames touchants, soit quelle se complaise à de charmants paysages et à des pieces exquises comme les June Roses, vous sentez tendrement la nature et vous la rendez d'une manière bien vive. Il y a dans votre volume un morceau à part et que des amis à qui je l'ai montré préfèrent à tout, c'est ce petit chef-d'oeuvre de 'Ganymede.'"—Sainte-Beuve.
"We have italicized two wonderful bits, but the whole passage should be italicized. The slenderness of the subject conceded, writing more exquisite it would not be easy to find in contemporary poetry. … For a companion picture nearly as delicious, and perhaps more compressed, we should have to go back to Coleridge. Out of Coleridge, moreover, it would not be easy to find any philosophical poetry finer than certain portions of Mr. Noel's 'Pan'—a poem very striking and quite original—forming a sort of grandiose pantheistic hymn to Nature. … As mere blank verse it is very striking, resonant, grandiose, and full of emotion. Sonic of the lyrics, all of a very fragile intellectual beauty, are very musical indeed. In moods like these—in a softly tinted sentiment, closely akin to his delicately sensuous feeling for natural colour—Mr. Noel has no rival. … Although these peculiarities are as yet too indefinitely manifested to warrant any final judgment as to the powers of the writer, it is nevertheless clear that his powers are those of genius, and, what is better, of genius specifically poetic. … 'Ganymede,' an idyl thoroughly Greek, a bit of work which reads like Theocritus in the original. Artistically a finished gem, it remains in the eye like a small Turner."—Athenæum.
"It is impossible to read 'Beatrice' through without being powerfully moved. There are passages in it which for intensity and tenderness, clear and vivid vision, spontaneous and delicate sympathy, may be compared with the best efforts of our best living writers."—Spectator.
"'Beatrice' is in many respects a noble poem; it displays a splendour of landscape painting, a strong definite precision of highly coloured description, which has not often been surpassed. The most intense and tender feelings are realized, and some of the more exquisite and evanescent moments of emotion are seized and represented by the poet with felicity. … In 'Ganymede' there is no less faculty of poetic vision than in 'Pan.' So vivid is the representative imagination in this poem that we seem, while reading it, to be looking intently at an old engraving—say of Marc Antonio, after Michael Angelo. In the severity and decision of its outline this picture is classical, but the outline is filled in with modern brilliancy of colouring."—Pall Mall Gazette.
"'Beatrice is the heroine of a true love story of great delicacy, power, and passion, in which the author shows his entire mastery of many different kinds of verse, and his intimate acquaintance with the broader workings of human nature. It is a story of power and beauty, told as a poet only can tell it."—Standard.
"Mr. Noel must be recognized as endowed with that delicacy of perception, that peculiar power of receiving and imparting ideal impression, which are marks of the born poet. He excels in delicate colour, floating suggestiveness, and dreamy imaginative beauty. The following lines from 'Summer Clouds and a Swan' are probably as exquisite as any word-picture in the English language. …"—Guardian.
MACMILLAN & CO., LONDON.
