why, for
I have found something better. I have just heard a poem spoken with so
delicate a sense of its rhythm, with so perfect a respect for its meaning,
that if I were a wise man and could persuade a few people to learn the art
I would never open a book of verses again. A friend, who was here a few
minutes ago, has sat with a beautiful stringed instrument upon her knee,
her fingers passing over the strings, and has spoken to me some verses
from Shelley's _Skylark_ and Sir Ector's lamentation over the dead
Launcelot out of the _Morte d'Arthur_ and some of my own poems. Wherever
the rhythm was most delicate, wherever the emotion was most ecstatic, her
art was the most beautiful, and yet, although she sometimes spoke to a
little tune, it was never singing, as we sing to-day, never anything but
speech. A singing note, a word chanted as they chant in churches, would
have spoiled everything; nor was it reciting, for she spoke to a notation
as definite as that of song, using the instrument, which murmured sweetly
and faintly, under the spoken sounds, to give her the changing notes.
Another speaker could have repeated all her effects, except those which
came from her own beautiful voice that would have given her fame if the
only art that gives the speaking voice its perfect opportunity were as
well known among us as it was known in the ancient world.

II

Since I was a boy I have always longed to hear poems spoken to a harp, as
I imagined Homer to have spoken his, for it is not natural to enjoy an art
only when one is by oneself. Whenever one finds a fine verse one wants to
read it to somebody, and it would be much less trouble and much
pleasanter if we could all listen, friend by friend, lover by beloved.
Images used to rise up before me, as I am sure they have arisen before
nearly everybody else who cares for poetry, of wild-eyed men speaking
harmoniously to murmuring wires while audiences in many-coloured robes
listened, hushed and excited. Whenever I spoke of my desire to anybody
they said I should write for music, but when I heard anything sung I did
not hear the words, or if I did their natural pronunciation was altered
and their natural music was altered, or it was drowned in another music
which I did not understand. What was the good of writing a love-song if
the singer pronounced love, 'lo-o-o-o-o-ve,' or even if he said 'love,'
but did not give it its exact place and weight in the rhythm? Like every
other poet, I