French-British Relations in Rhythm

For this assignment, I found a piece published in Rhythm in Vol. 1 No. 3 during Winter 1911. It's on page 32 and it's titled "Railway Vision" by Arthur Crossthwaite.

link: http://dl.lib.brown.edu/repository2/repoman.php?verb=render&id=115989415...

First of all, before I comment on this specific piece, I would like to point out that there are French phrases scattered throughout this issue of the magazine and an entire poem published in French on page 10 called "Petite Poème." This in an of itself says something to me about the relations between France and Britian, that a magazine published in London still includes things that I assume are for French readers since many Brits wouldn't know French. Likewise, by including a poem entirely in French without any translation or explanation of it in English, it's almost as though it is solely for an inclusion of a French audience.

But for the specific piece of "Railway Vision," one of the lines towards the beginning really stuck out to me. It says, "In Paris one talks and talks, in London one dreams and does." This line strikes me as giving an attitude of the time of how British people thought of Parisians- that they are simply all talk and no action. But as the piece continues, I got a little lost in the monologue of the author. It's almost as though he claims that London is where dreams can take place, in the beginning, but then he changes his mind during the course of the piece as he talks about art and the ability of an artist to do as he pleases. One of the last lines says, "And that phrase, 'The Art of Essentials' set me dreaming again of Paris and café-talks, and I saw vague ideal visions of a misty future, until the rasp of breaks and a hoarse 'Victoria!" brought me back to reality and London." So this last sentence is in direct contrast from the start of the piece and I particularly think it's amusing that at the beginning she said that in Paris you can only talk but in London you can dream, and then once she's back in London, she's dreaming about the café talks in Paris. I think in terms of relations between the two cities, this idea can offer some of the mutual fascination between the two cities. The two cultures are interested by one another and try to include one another, as shown in this piece and the inclusion of other French phrases and works in this issue.