_Vailima Plantation_, _Upolu_, _Samoa_, _August_ 1_st_, 1892.
MY DEAR HENLEY,—It is impossible to let your new volume pass in silence.
I have not received the same thrill of poetry since G. M.’s _Joy of
Earth_ volume and _Love in a Valley_; and I do not know that even that
was so intimate and deep. Again and again, I take the book down, and
read, and my blood is fired as it used to be in youth. _Andante con
moto_ in the _Voluntaries_, and the thing about the trees at night (No.
XXIV. I think) are up to date my favourites. I did not guess you were so
great a magician; these are new tunes, this is an undertone of the true
Apollo; these are not verse, they are poetry—inventions, creations, in
language. I thank you for the joy you have given me, and remain your old
friend and present huge admirer,