The Portland daily press., 1888-11-29
CONCERNING BOOKS.
BY e. cAvAzzA.

In the Woods and Elsewhere. BY Thomas
Hill. The immediate impression gained in
reading this volume Of verse is of pure,
spontaneous poetry, the unaffected express
sion of a rarely exalted and comprehensive
mind. With all his profound learning, per-
haps the more because of it-Dr. Hills
poems are clear and simple. and full of joy
GUS recognition of the wonders of the created
world. In his modes of thought there is re-
semblance to Wordsworth and to Emerson;
while in expression he is more lyric than the
one aud less remote than the other. His
verse is original in the best sense of the
word; it suggests the belief that if the art of
poetry had never been formulated, DR.. Hill
would have found the way to sing his songs,
readily and heartily as bird upon bough.
Observation of nature and the sentiment
with which it inspires him form the theme
Of those of his poems which rank most highly
as literature.
The ode In the Woods is a perfect prelude
to the other poems of the volume; it is pene-
trated by a pious rapture Wilhelm absence
Of an apter phrase-may be called Christian
pantheism; while its delicately varied verse,
unrhymed, is as graceful as the motion of
wind-swayed leaves. Rue-leaved Anemone
is tenderly imagined poem. The Thrushes
is an exquisite lyric, and in every way rep
resentative expression of its authors poetic
gift The Earliest FREELY and Antiopa are
delicate and exalted in tone; while in Quando
Veniet Lux is touched deeper note. Beech
Hill, entirely of the local color of New Eng
land. has also the graphic spirituality of
Herbert's verse or Bunyan's prose. In De
Republica, powerful image is well sus-
tanned. A Winter Sketch is charming-as
simple as We are Seven and more uncon-
scious, The various examples of religious
poetry are animated by faith and devotion.
Among these the hymn of the freed Africans
is notable for condensed imagery and for
hne handling of anot unusualmetre, whereby
the opening stanZas are made as barbaric in
musical quality as a theme from Aida. In
TRANSACTIONS from the classics and from Ger
man authors DR.. Hill is also fortunate
Several of his finest poems have been, thus
far, purposely left unnoticed, in order to
group them according to technical distinc-
tion, as studies of Latin metre applied to
English prosody. DIR. Hill has not been the
first to wish to enlarge the metrcal resources
of English verse; the matter has been much
discussed-notably by Mr.. Swinburne, re-
garding it, perhaps too little tolerantly,
from his height of phenomenal ability as
classicist. Lord Tennyson has made several
| experiments In strict quantity; more pleas.
ing than the elaborate essays of the laureate
have been the unaffected adaptation of the
hexameter in Professor Longfellow's Evan
i oalina fba 20 of
| de Voyage, by Mr.. Clough; the narrative
elegiacs Of Mr.. A. J. Munby's Dorothy, or
the magnificent lyric treatment of the same
metre in Mr.. Swinturne's Evening on the
| Breads In presence of these brilliant dem
onstrations, DIR. HilPs classic measures hold
| their own satisfactorily. He frankly accepts
the conditions of the English language; over
| weighted with consonants, it is not readily
amenable to the rules of quantity, and hence
las also for reason of the fact that the
modern ear has not inherited perception
of whatever pleasure quantity was able
to afford to the old Romans-he under
stands that English verse must depend upon
accent, inherent in it and recognizable by its
readers and hearers The Marsh-the first
of these adaptations Of classic metre in DR..
Hills yolume-is excellent in local color and
| in its Homeric roll-call of the company of
flower and leaf. The running over of the
sense from. one line to the next which some
times leaves proposition or particle hang
ing in air at the end Of the line-although
fully sanctioned by classic modeIs-is not
quite acceptable to an English ear In the
poem, Mile Run, this effect occurs but once,
and the movement of the verse is rich and
spontaneous. A delightful metre is found in
The Winter is Past. The verses upon The
Bloodroot classic in feeling as in form, yet
preserve the atmosphere of New England.
| This volume, selected from the verse writ
ten by DIR. Hill in course of the last forty
years, proves him to be one whose office of
poet has sought him, not he the Office. Dos
ton: Cupples Hurd; Portland: Loring,
Short d HARMONY
The Philistines. BY Arlo Bates. The
| persOnages to whom Mr.. Bates introduced
! the readers of his clever and strong novel, The