My dead love came to me, and said,
“God gives me one hour’s rest,
To spend with thee on earth again
How shall we spend it best?”
“Why, as of old,” I said; and so
We quarrell’d, as of old;
But, when I turned to make my peace,
That one short hour was told.[1]
[1] This poem is by Stephen Phillips,
the English poet and playwright. He was born in 1864 at Somertown near Oxford, son of the
Rev. Stephen Phillips. He was educated at Stratford and Peterborough Grammar
Schools, and entered Queens’ College, Cambridge, but during his first term, F.
R. Benson’s dramatic company visited the town. He left school to join it, and
for six years played various small parts.
In 1890 Stephen contributed to a volume of verse published at Oxford with the title Primavera. In 1896 appeared Christ in Hades, which arrested the attention of watchful critics of poetry. When it was followed by a collection of Poems in 1897 the writer’s position as a new poet of exceptional gifts was generally recognized. The volume won the prize of £100 offered by the Academy newspaper for the best new book of its year, ran through half a dozen editions in two years, and established Phillips’s rank as poet, which was sustained by the publication, in the Nineteenth Century in 1898 of his poem Endymion.
George Alexander, the actor-manager, then commissioned Phillips to write him a play, the result being Paolo and Francesca (1900), a drama founded on Dante’s famous episode. Encouraged by the great success of the drama in its literary form, Mr Alexander produced the piece at the St James’ Theatre in the course of 1901; it met with great success. Phillips continued to write dramas, with the aim of reviving the method of Greek drama. He achieved considerable popularity in his day. He passed away in 1915. (Source: Encyclopedia Brittanica, 1911 edition)
In 1890 Stephen contributed to a volume of verse published at Oxford with the title Primavera. In 1896 appeared Christ in Hades, which arrested the attention of watchful critics of poetry. When it was followed by a collection of Poems in 1897 the writer’s position as a new poet of exceptional gifts was generally recognized. The volume won the prize of £100 offered by the Academy newspaper for the best new book of its year, ran through half a dozen editions in two years, and established Phillips’s rank as poet, which was sustained by the publication, in the Nineteenth Century in 1898 of his poem Endymion.
George Alexander, the actor-manager, then commissioned Phillips to write him a play, the result being Paolo and Francesca (1900), a drama founded on Dante’s famous episode. Encouraged by the great success of the drama in its literary form, Mr Alexander produced the piece at the St James’ Theatre in the course of 1901; it met with great success. Phillips continued to write dramas, with the aim of reviving the method of Greek drama. He achieved considerable popularity in his day. He passed away in 1915. (Source: Encyclopedia Brittanica, 1911 edition)
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