I found Meredith a rather overwhelming person,
at least to me- a diffident youth.
A brilliant and fantastic talker-
one needed to be more his age;
more his intellectual match
to parry his verbal swordplay
and to comprehend his whimsical soliloquies.
He received me with the sympathy of a father-
soon put me at my ease.
His talk was like his books;
elaborately fanciful, knotted with thought,
a thicket of thorn bushes
hung with sudden starry blossoms.
One had to snatch what one could.
I was magnetised by the rush and verve
of his resonant voice, and dominated
by his lordly manner.
It seemed to me, slightly theatrical,
almost affected bravura.
Ulysses must have been such a man,
tall, lean and a rugged fighter.
With that far off crafty look
he seemed to me characteristically Welsh;
Roughly bearded, high browed,
keen grey eyes, slightly upturned fighting nose.
An immense intellectual alertness pervaded
his vigorous frame and was
his most characteristic expression.
His portrait,
known to everyone that reads,
by Hollyer is himself,
exactly.
(Source of found poem- The Romantic 90s by Richard Le Gallienne)
More about Hollyer can be found at the V and A website https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/frederick-hollyer-life-and-work
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