Curiously enough an unpublished poem on the same subject [as that by Matthew Arnold] by the late Mr. Henley is also in Mr. Punch’s possession. It is written in a rhymeless measure, not wholly unlike Matthew Arnold’s, but with the difference in feeling is extremely marked: —
Margate Sands!
Dotted with feasters,
Young men and maidens,
Elate, uproarious,
Exultant, drunk
With the joy of life
And with various liquors.
Look on it there,
Behold it aud wonder,
Many-hued, various,
Ecstatic, strepitant
Life!
Life with its fruitfulness,
Its fierce encounters,
Its strenuous onsets.
Life the spendthrift,
The palpitant wasted,
The bounding maenad,
Up there in London,
Down here in Margate,
Life!
Other parodies from this article
Bibliography
“Lost Masterpieces.” Punch (25 November 1903): 365.
Last modified 4 April 2008