IN MEMORIAM
L. S.
The author of these poems was one who lived continuously a life of pure imagination in an ideal world of her own—one whose conceptions the busy world of to-day found little leisure to study, until she had withdrawn from it finally into the long silence. It is often said, how little do we know of many a rare quality in our midst, which the turmoil of life prevents us from valuing as we should. It was thus that the life and work of Louisa Shore passed almost unknown to the world at large.
Audience fit, though few, she had. But neither they, nor indeed she herself, quite understood the rank she might have held amongst contemporary poets, if she could have brought herself to claim her place—even to know what she might have claimed; if her health, energies,
37