Can nobly lay it down;

And these will ride from child and home and love,
Through death and hell that day;
But O, her faith, her flag, must burn above,
Her soul must lead the way!

I think none the worse of the mental force exhibited in the poetry of
Alfred Noyes because he is an optimist. It is a common error to
suppose that cheerfulness is a sign of a superficial mind, and
melancholy the mark of deep thinking. Pessimism in itself is no proof
of intellectual greatness. Every honest man must report the world as
he sees it, both in its external manifestations and in the equally
salient fact of human emotion. Mr. Noyes has always loved life, and
rejoiced in it; he loves the beauty of the world and believes that
history proves progress. In an unashamed testimony to the happiness of
living he is simply telling truths of his own experience. Happiness is
not necessarily thoughtlessness; many men and women have gone through
pessimism and come out on serener heights.

Alfred Noyes proves, as Browning proved, that it is possible to be an
inspired poet and in every other respect to remain normal. He is
healthy-minded, without a trace of affectation or decadence. He
follows the Tennysonian tradition in seeing that "Beauty, Good, and
Knowledge are three sisters." He is religious. A clear-headed,
pure-hearted Englishman is Alfred Noyes.

Although _A Shropshire Lad_ was published in 1896, there is
nothing of the nineteenth century in it except the date, and nothing
Victorian except the allusions to the Queen. A double puzzle confronts