Knowing the facts that underlie the preceding poem I can
tell why Butler called it an In Memoriam; not knowing the facts that
underlie this poem I cannot tell why Butler should have called it an
Academic Exercise. It is his last Sonnet and is dated "Sund. Jan.
12th 1902," within six months of his death, at a time when he was
depressed physically because his health was failing and mentally
because he had been "editing his remains," reading and destroying old
letters and brooding over the past. One of the subjects given in the
section "Titles and Subjects" (ante) is "The diseases and ordinary
causes of mortality among friendships." I suppose that he found
among his letters something which awakened memories of a friendship
of his earlier life--a friendship that had suffered from a disease,
whether it recovered or died would not affect the sincerity of the
emotions experienced by Butler at the time he believed the friendship
to be virtually dead. I suppose the Sonnet to be an In Memoriam upon
the apprehended death of a friendship as the preceding poem is an In
Memoriam upon the apprehended death of a friend.
This may be wrong, but something of the kind seems necessary to
explain why Butler should have called the Sonnet an Academic
Exercise. No one who has read Shakespeare's Sonnets Reconsidered
will require to be told that he disagreed contemptuously with those
critics who believe that Shakespeare composed his Sonnets as academic
exercises.
Pages:
496
497
498
499
500
501
502
503
504
505
506
507
508
509
510
511
512
513
514
515
516
517
518
519
520