Blithe ghosts were wandering by, in all varieties of
apparel, and I distinctly observed Dante's Beatrice, leaning loving on
the arm of Sir Philip Sidney, while Dante was closely engaged in
conversation with the lost Lenore, celebrated by Mr. Edgar Allan Poe.
"'In what can my knowledge of the Paradise of Poets be serviceable to
you, sir?' said Catullus, as he flung himself at the feet of Laura, on
the velvet grass.
"'I am disinclined to seem impertinently curious,' I answered, 'but the
ladies in this fair, smiling country--have the gods made them poetical?'
"'Not generally,' replied Catullus. 'Indeed, if you would be well with
them, I may warn you never to mention poetry in their hearing. They
never cared for it while on earth, and in this place it is a topic which
the prudent carefully avoid among ladies. To tell the truth, they have
had to listen to far too much poetry, and too many discussions on the
caesura. There are, indeed, a few lady poets--very few. Sappho, for
example; indeed I cannot recall any other at this moment. The result is
that Phaon, of all the shadows here, is the most distinguished by the
fair. He was not a poet, you know; he got in on account of Sappho, who
adored him. They are estranged now, of course.'
"'You interest me deeply,' I answered. 'And now, will you kindly tell me
why these ladies are here, if they were not poets?'
"'The women that were our ideals while we dwelt on earth, the women we
loved but never won, or, at all events, never wedded, they for whom we
sighed while in the arms of a recognised and legitimate affection, have
been chosen by the Olympians to keep us company in Paradise!'
"'Then wherefore,' I interrupted, 'do I see Robert Burns loitering with
that lady in a ruff,--Cassandra, I make no doubt--Ronsard's Cassandra?
And why is the incomparable Clarinda inseparable from Petrarch; and Miss
Patty Blount, Pope's flame, from the Syrian Meleager, while _his_
Heliodore is manifestly devoted to Mr.
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