Published Cornhill, Dec. 1863, as the third of ‘Attempts at Classic Metres in Quantity’; then 1864, among ‘Experiments in Quantity’. Written autumn 1863 (CT, p. 346). All variants from HnMS (HM 19498) are below. ‘These must be read with the English accent’ (T.). He used the metre again for an attack on a critic, The Gentle Life (III 12). Cp. Campion’s epigrams in his Obse A t of Englh Poey (1602)
O you chorus of indolent reviewers,
Irresponsible, indolent reviewers,
Look, I come to the test, a tiny poem
All composed in a metre of Catullus,
All in quantity, careful of my motion,
Like the skater on ice that hardly bears him,
Lest I fall unawares before the people,
Waking laughter in indolent reviewers.
Should I flounder awhile without a tumble
Through this metrification of Catullus,
They should speak to me not without a welcome,
All that chorus of indolent reviewers.
Hard, hard, hard is it, only not to tumble,
So fantastical is the dainty metre.
Wherefore slight me not wholly, nor believe me
Too presumptuous, indolent reviewers.
O blatant Magazines, regard me rather –
Since I blush to belaud myself a moment –
As some rare little rose, a piece of inmost
Horticultural art, or half coquette-like
Maiden, not to be greeted unbenignly.
¶334. 2] Not HnMS.
3M. Look, I] Here I MS.
4. ‘The Phalaecian hendecasyllable, the metre in which all but seventeen of the short poems 1–60 are written’ (C. J. Fordyce, Catullus, 1961, p. 83). On the metre and an echo of Catullus, see J. Ferguson, English Studies in Africa xii (1969) 43–4.
10. metrification] versification MS.
14. fantastical] tyrannical MS.
15. slight] scorn MS.
17. blatant] loud-lung’d MS.
19. rare little] 1864; exquisite 1863. Presumably changed because of the doubt as to éxquisite or exquísite.
19–20] As some exquisite rose, or half-coquettish MS.
19–21. Cp. Catullus lxii 39–45: ut flos in saeptis secretus nascitur hortis…/sic virgo dum intacta manet, dum cara suis est. (‘As a flower springs up secretly in a fenced garden… so a maiden, whilst she remains untouched, so long is she dear to her own.’)
21. greeted] treated MS.