The Portland daily press., 1892-03-14


with the capricious art of the southern
songster and similar accents are strength
ened in the ode The Final Thought.
With a difference of warmer tonality, the
ode to Sappho is in the same manner; IN
it, the poet says, he has woven echoes
from the fragments of the poems OF the
Lesbian Gin the true mocking-bird man
ner.'' Nor is he altogether unindebted
to poem on the same theme by Mr..
Swinburne How delicate is the verse
may be judged from a few. lines 1.-THE
words italicized are version of Sappho's
own,
In low, many toned, deep, sweet nocturne,
To guess.
The lost notes that, once stricken from tiny
Tyre,
Touched all the world with fiery tenderness,
And filed the air with views OF tender nre;
But of my longing consett unto me
Never the b4bJli7lg honey, nor the honetbee!
A moment of fine impressionism is this
Before Dawn: IHi
Such quiet came, expectancy
Filled all the earth and sky;
Time seemed to pause a little space;
heard a dream go by!
In the whole volume there is nothing
better than the stanzas To Realist, that
note the power of suggestion to render
fertile the fancy:
Time spares the germs that subtle genius
needs;
Forth from the blue of distance they are sent
he declares, and praises ideality with
reason and poetic warmth.
Yet for one sole reason it is evident to
one reader, at least, that Mr.. Maurice
Thompson is not yet worthy to be called
a true poet. His sympathies are incom-
plete; his loyalty to the bonds of COM
mon creation is imperfect Else how
can he, in musical and complacent verse,
glory in the Staying of the white heron
at home in its marsh, regret that his
arrow wa not the death of the little
fawn by the riverside? To love nature
and murder her children for sport-what
an irony! Less artistic than Mr.. Thomp-
sons, but in effect the same, was the
traditional expression of the British
butcher: tWhat beautiful moonlight
night! Seems as if must go out and
kill something's Boston: Houghton,
Mifain & Co., Portland: Loring, Short
& Harmon. Price S1.50.)
Selections from Lucian. Translated
bv Emily James Smith. Perhaps at no
previous period of modern civilization
would the personality and writings OF
the worthy Lucian have been so fairly
appreciated. His genial, offhand COM
panionableness, his lively dislike to SUI
perstitions, his good-humored negations
and cynicisms are quite in the vein of
this end of the century. The translator
has understood the qualities of Lucian,
and in her preface asks only that he shall
be judged as he is, without prejudice of
the erudite theories of intolerant or mi
mute commentators. Of Lucian's style
she is able to note by comparison with
other Greek texts of various times that
it has piquant flavor of conscious ar
chaism; readers less erudite can admire
the rapidity, elegance and attraction
which, apparent in this version, must
have been faithfully conveyed from the
original Very rarely does the transla-
ton interrupt by a too modern note the
simple and pure idiom that well repre-
sents tile Greek. American ''dollars''
and a French ''fiance' are little discords
that might easily have been avoided by
so competent a translator. The famous
story of the metamorphosis of Loukios
into donkey, has not lost its comic
quality in the course of the centuries.
The dialogues and sketches also are full
of vivid individuality. To the translator
of these selections, is due gratitude for
a pleasant contribution to the popular
acquaintance with the Greek classics.
New York: Harper & Brothers; Port
land: Loring, Shot & Harmony
Not All in Vain. By Ada Cambridge.
This new story by a favorite writer of
English and Australian novels, appears
still more vigorous, if slightly less pleas
ing, than some of her previous work.
The heroine, Katharine Knowles, is of a
type only too rare in fction-not too
common, either in real life-a woman of
heart, loyalty and common sense. Other
characters are Interestingly drawn, with
a touch that shows experience and OBJ
servation. The reader might, by the
way, have been spared some of the I'M
pleasant details of the dreadful Mrs.
Bellamy. The long patience and toll of
the heroine are disappointed and then
recompensed in way which it would be
telling the story beforehand to describe.
New York: D. Appleton & Co.; Port
land: Loring, Short & Harmon. Price
$100.
Rowena in Boston. By Maria Louise
Pool. The impression left by the spirit
and originality of the authors ''Dally"
predisposes one to take in hand expec-
family this new book. AS portrayal of
types this appears less artistic; and its