see 'Broken Blossoms,' and the liberal hand from which that production
was flung to a waiting world left its ineffaceable finger-prints on his
polished mind.

"Now we come to stanza three. The first line shows the influence of
Mother Goose; the second is an unconscious echo of Solomon's Song; the
ever-brimming cup owes itself to Omar; and the rest of the stanza to Rupert
Brooke.

"Thus we see the importance of widespread reading, and a catholicity of
influences.

"Influence is wonderful! To invent a new simile, it is like a pebble
dropped into a placid lake; the ripples form ever-widening circles, and the
influence of an influence is never wholly lost.

"Perhaps--and this is quite as it should be--the final stanza is the finest
of all. It starts out under the influences of Walt Whitman. Had Walt
been omitted, the whole structure would have tumbled to the ground! No
self-respecting poet now-a-days writes without being influenced by
Whitman. It isn't done. It would be as indiscreet as to appear in one's
shirt-sleeves. The influence of the good, gray Poet _must_ be felt, must be
_shown_, or the budding bard is out of the running. Only a dash of Whitman
is needed--'my well-loved earth' and 'prodigal' are quite sufficient.

"'The sweet fulfilment of the flesh' is a final roundup that gracefully
blends Whitman's and Ella Wheeler Wilcox's influential powers--and,
incidentally, justifies the magnificent title of the poem.

"Then, as a crowning triumph, note the splendid last line, a masterpiece