Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-12-20
THE CRITICS REVIEW.
Dir. L. Il. StOddard and Rudyard
Kipling Daily With the Muses.. e.
THE DEVILS OLD PICTURE BOOK.
A Choice Specimen of The Literature of the
English Turf.
ATTRACTIVE BOOKS In PAPER COVERS

There is so much poetry in MIR. r. a.
Stoddard's little book of yerse-"The Lions
Cub (Charles Scribner's Sons: j. r. We'll
din & Co., 81 25)-that one knows not where
to begin quoting. The poetry begins with
the roses and Sunbeams of the cover, and
never flags to the last word OF 'The Lions
Cub" the name-piece of the book being, in
this instance, set for epilogue. Perhaps
this little couplet of verses will illustrate as
well as any other the Oriental meditativeness
which marks the book on almost every page.
The title is 'Ihe Door,
One knocked at the Beloveds door.
"Who is there?" The loud reply
To the Voice within was, az"
go thy way and come no more,
This house holds not Me and Thee;
Who himself loves loves not Me-"
Closed was the Beloved's door.
Back to the Beloved's door,
After twelve months prayer and fast
In the desert lone and vast,
The lover came and knocked once more.
who is there?n The answer now
Was no longer al :" but Thou"
Opened was the Heavenly Door.
The wise men from the East speak in the
book. Mohammedan sages and Persian
DOttS duu DIhuLIdu pEASslS nave
and pleasant utterance here. Perhaps the
best of the book, however, is its company of
lovers. Mr.. Stoddard's venerable head
with beard of patriarchaI cut and color, does
not prepare the reader who looks first at his
picture for all these tripping, graceful. win
ming, CHEEKY ana tender loye songs. "Silver
Amoris'' begins the book and makes a good
name Tor good part of it.
Rudyard kipling's Departmental Dit
I III III Il
States Book Company is book OF rather
Hewspapery poetry, and probably owes its
sight of the light mainly to Mr.. Kipling's
sudden popularity. Most of these verses are
capital catches" to be said or sung at SOL
dierS' messes or in the glimmer of
camphres or TO the time of drum
aud fife. English politics, especially as
they have headquarters at the Foreign
Office; and military life in India
with its pranks and promotions, make
up the themes of the majority of these slap
dash rhymes. And glimpses into that
side of llfe-set in frames which probably
20 better with the pictures than Mr.. Stod-
dard's gracefully finished settings would
these pages are worth while. You can't
write up "loots" and "pink dominoes," and
the story Of the rise of "Potiphar Gubbins
c. E. and the woes of per cent reduc-
tons in ''our Incomes in the style OF
Hafz, or with the gravity of Marcus
Aurelius. Here is a verse for sample:
When the 'arfmade recruity goes out to the
East
e acts like a babe an 'e drinks like beast,
An e wonders because e is frequent de-
, ceased
Ere 'e's tit for to serve as a soldier.
Serve, serve, serve as a soldier,
Serve. serve, serve as n soldier,
Serve, serve serve as A soldier
So-oldier hof the Queen!
That is how it goes, rollicking verse and
shouting chorus ballads of the barrack
room.
There are no shouts and no choruses in
Songs from an Attic" (Brentano's: J.
L. Weldin & Co.) A sad book for the most
mart; telling stories of discouragemeu: in
rather indifferent meter, and not very sue
cess III endeavors after poetry. Here, for
example:
look at you, my brothers in the swim,
While wade in the lower depths of art,
And wonder, as my day and eyes grow dim,
How each of you, from youth up, played
your part.
Well, ! had pearls, too, in this soul of mine:
l wooed and won. and lost too in my day.
I got in sadness what / tossed to swine
And now my soul is going far away.
Prettily bound, with a green spider
climbing up white wall into green net.