CRITIC BETWEEN THE LINES
SIR,—To my great amusement, a Mr. Anthony Hartley, reviewing my Gardeners and Astronomers, states: The last lines of ' A Song of the Dust' show a greater measure of disintegration:
' If every grain of my dust should be a Satan, If every atom of my heart were Lucifer— If every drop of my blood were an Abaddon, —Yet should I love.' It is good of Mr. Hartley to teach, not only me, but the late John Donne, Dean of St. Paul's, how to write. By a most unfor- tunate accident, which nobody regrets more) than I, and which will be rectified in my next edition, a note was omitted from the book, telling the reader that the passage of which this gentleman complains with such vehemence, is an adaptation from one of Donne's Sermons.
Would it not have been wiser for your reviewer, before being quite so impertinent, to have read more widely ?
I shall, no doubt, be told that little Mr, Tomkins (or whatever his name may be), this week's new great poet, does not incorporate, in his work, phrases from the past, giving them a twist, and importing new meaning, That is so. But more than one great poet does. And it is useless to deny it.
Mr. Hartley says: " If Dr. Sitwell had some idea in mind as the particular appropriate" ness of peridots and beryls to the sap of tree, she has failed to communicate it."
To Mr. Hartley. Nor to others.
I was brought up in the country. I suggest that one day in spring Mr. Hartley should try breaking off a twig from its branch.--YourS faithfully,
8358 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood 46, California [Our reviewer writes: " I note Dr. Sitwell'
i apology but do not in any case consider that it is a defence against criticism that the line* criticised are adapted '• from Donne or any. one else. As to the precious stones Dr. Sitwell has adapted' my words by misquoting.them, I wrote figtree,' not ' tree,' and the point of course is whether the various stones have special relevance to the saps of the various trees. I shall take an occasion of breaking off a twig as Dr. Sitwell suggests, but 1 have already some familiarity with country life, and meanwhile adhere to the opinions which I expressed—I believe with restraint and courtesy—in my review."] [The following cable has since been received from Dr. Sitwell.—Editor Spectator.
" Please have Anthony Harteles stuffed and placed in glass case with moth balls at my expense. Finest specimen in your collection. My reasons will soon be divulged to whole world.—Edith Sitwell."]
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