Note 5 — Chapter III · FIRST CONTACTS WITH THE ENEMY

In December, 1875, he being then fifteen, he wrote “The Embarkation, a Hymn in Honor of Magellan’s Fleet,” a poem in seven stanzas of eight lines. The measure may be called anapestic dimeter, of which old Skelton was a master and in which Herrick occasionally performed, but rare thereafter in English poetry until Hood and Swinburne revived it. A few months later he appeared with a poem of nine stanzas arranged much after the manner of the Sicilian octave. This was on “Education” and contained exquisite imagery, while it showed an unmistakable grasp of melodic resource.5