Swinburne has written an ode to the French Republic. This lofty rhyme is
built up of strophes, anti-strophes, and an epode. In its construction,
and grandiloquence are thrown about with the careless disregard for
innocent passers-by which characterizes that poet's freedom of style.
Most probably no sane English-speaking person has read it through and
preserved his sanity. The poet's idea in writing it was to get the
French engaged in trying to understand it, and the Germans to engage in
translating it, and thus stop the war by pure exhaustion of the
combatants. The idea was good, but hardly practical.
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