The record-union., 1891-04-02
new PUBLICATIONS.

Meadvllle, Pa, have issued from the
'Chautauqua Century" press in very
handsome form. The author is one whose
writings are not unfamiliar to our public.
She has poetic strength and grace, vivid
and at times brilliant Imagination, and
her dramatic power is unqueStioned. The
argument runs thus: The Amazons,
hearing of the death of Hector, and the
extremity of the Trojans, come under the
leadership of their Queen (Penthesilea) to
assist them. She challenges Achilles to
single combat and is slain by him, but
not before he has noted her marvellous
beauty and great courage, and moved
with sudden love would have withheld
the blow. He lamentS over her death
and is taunted by Thersites, who speaks
yond endurance Achilles turns upon him
aud Stays him. Diomed, to ayenge Their
sites death, steals the body Of Penthe-
silica, which Achilles had returned TO the
AmaZonS, ana casts it into the Scamander.
The volume will establish Miss Woods
reputation as capable literary worker,
and will confirm the opinion had of her
fine poetic quality. 1t is a beautiful piece
OF work; the imagery is rich, the
tenderness of the songs equisite, and the
story told with eaSe rapidity and suS-
tanned interest. To present extracts
from dramatic poem cannot serve to
convey any adequate idea of the method
"
will illustrate the style of composition.
Take for instance the opening scene, the
plain of Troy, at evening with Diomed
and Achilles in converse. Achilles thus
mourns delay:
Slow are the gods to work the will of men.
A hundred times the moon has risen pale,
a little crescent boat that skinned the waves
OF deeps unknown; a hundred times has
spread
Her silver sails on her adventurous course,
Drawn them again and trembled into rest
And thrice thousand times the splendid car
OF day has glittered on the mountains brow,
And the swift Stecds have swept its noiseless
wheels
Through the cerulean spaces of the sky.
And thrice thousand times the calm-browed
Has risen majestic from the unfathomed
depths
OF subterranean being and let fall
Quiet and cooling shadow on the earth.
The birds have nestled brooded, flown again,
Nine times; the beasts have mated in their
lairS,
And their young range the echoing woods no
more.
Our children, lispingat our knees, have grown
To youths and maidenS, strong and beautiful,
And yet we linger on the plains OF Troy.
Mourning for lost comrades and the
dead heroes, he thus continues. But
Diomed soothes him and recalls the vic
tories won, reciting some of the conquests
OF arms To him Achilles replies:
Enough my soul responsive leaps to thoughts
0t war and conquest; would test the arms
OF mtghtier heroes sweeter is the fight
To noble hearts than home and ease and love.
In battle we are Gods, for we subdue,
And hold the power of life and death we feel
Lifting the spear above the PROSTATE foe,
AS the Olympians when they look to earth.
And say, This man shall die and that one
Oh i've are drunken with the wine of power;
RAISED with the magic of the ruddy draught
From groyellers of the earth TO dizzy heights,
-iroA11 4 n t,,h hoo, "A
There Is seen approaching a host of
nymphs, whom Achilles describes as:
So fair and beautiful are those who come,
Surely the offspring of some source divine
Diomed joins in a glowing description
of the vision, saying:
Like fields of clover rippled by the wind
Or like the crested foam on breaking waves
They come, as white, rs multtudinous.
Led by one, Diomed pictures as possibly
the lovely archer-queen so white her
arms. SO fleet her glancing feet. so bright.
like ripened wheat, her shining hair"
and as they approach they sing, and with
their song mingles a battle cry:
ecu Softer, kai Nike"
I'VE look oh! Lord to thee.
The Lord Of Heaven and light,
To slay the sons of night,
To battle for the free.
Give victory to the right,
Uphold us with thy might
Who come q shield to be,
a sword the oppressed to free,
And put their foes 10 flight"
A very beautiful passage is that upon
page "a:
Life without love is n lutc
Wanting a touch on the strings;
Perfect, bat SOngleSS and mute.
1t is a bird without wings,
Longing for deeps of the sky.
II is soul without birth;
1t is a spirit of earth,
1earn1ng for Infinite things.
Life without love is a night.
Starless, unknown ofthe moon;
Day, without daWning of light,
Shadows and darkness at noon;
II Is q fountain gone dry;
Embers of fire without heat;
Words OF song without tune.
Life full of love is a stream
Lost in the ocean; a leaf
Fading in crimson; a dream.
Love, like phantom of grief
Spectral and dim gimmers by,
Fails at the threshold of death,
Passes from man like breath,
Leaves him alone on the reef
Achilles having met and slain in COM
bat the beautiful Penthesilea, thus pas
sionately implores the gods TO restore her
TO life:
4e gods, but hear my vows; ! promise lambs
And spotleSs bullocks and the Saltcd cakes
with full libatiOnS on your altarS poured
Six days and nights II We will hear my prayer.
Snatch from the realms of Pluto this one
shade
Call back the soul that walks the shadowv
road
To the dim river and the ghostIy boat
OF Charon; hear me once before / die
Let my feet never touch the blooming fields
OF Hellas more, If only she may live.
Zeus, thou vert not unheedful TO the prayer
OF nereid Thetis, rising from the sea,
TO clasp thy knees, a Suppliant for her son.
Hear now that son, and many fairies shall rise
And sacred altars, and a temple built
In Hellas and thy image in the midst.
the poem throughout is rich in its i'm
agery, but in its descriptive passages is
especially vivid and strong 1t testifies
not only to lively fancy but to exceed
ing dramatic vigor. If the author of this
poem does not give us work less classical
III ITS theme, and nearer to the thought of
present time, that Will touch the hearts of
the people and make her songs linger
in the memory of men and women of
the time, we have much mistaken the
genius ofthe poetess.
The book is for sale by booksellers
generally and by the author at l2l9 O.
street, Sacramento.
OF the Riverside Paper Series. pub
lished by Houghton, Mffflin d Co, Bos-
ton and New York, we have Bret Harte,s
''rhe Crusade of the Excelsior.n ssPlot
of the utmost variety and intricacy is
supplied from Mr.. Harte's exhaustless
stores OF invention for this story,'' SAYS
the New York Times. 1t is one of the
most popular numbers of the Riverside
Series, for as has been well said. .'the ne
culiarity of Mr.. Harte's stories is that
they are always interesting; they have the
cnarm of which he alone has the secret.
they are thoroughly delightful. .
OF the same series, The Riverside. we
have also the March number, which CON
tains Mary Agnes Iincker's story, Two
Coronets." This story begins in Italy
with such incidents OF social conspiracy
as seems TO flourish in Italian life. 1t
afterwards alternates between Italy and
New England, and the sharp contrasts of