Kansas City journal. [volume] (Kansas City, Mo.) 1897-1928, 1898-03-06

he makes you think of range up to Milton
and do not fall below Lander. He attempts
nothing small, and his poetry brings with
1T that sensation of novelty and that suf-
fusion of a strongly marked personality
which stamps a genuine poet: The volume
able, about equal in length to the 'Georg-
les: it contains abundant performance.
and even when promise exceeds perform
ance It is promise Of the most interest.
yer wholly emerged from the period OF
discipleship. The two most perfect Of his
poems are those which suggest a master;
ity to justify all that we nave said: and
two of the other poems, the less able to
defy criticism. mark a new departure in
Unlike most modern poets, Mr. Phillips
does not shine in the pure lyric; he has not
the simplicities of song. His verse has a
grave and stately music which lends it
self to imprisoned narrative. and still more
readily to the utterance Of impassioned
thought. Four of his poems-the four
onSestIstand out; two of them. Marpessa'
in style and subject; the other two at
tempt a more difficult and more novel
achievement. to harmonic in poetry the
its asphalt. and its crowd of trivial and
tragic faces. Christ in Hades' is of the
four the least interesting. because the
Astounding in detached lines of extraordin-
airy beauty. .Marpessa' is a Greek idyll
which tells how a maiden. having to choose
ed the mortal lover. The thought of the
poem is beautiful; and though Mr.. Phillips
does not escape the influence of Tennyson-
why should he?-his blank verse is entire.
ly his own. everywhere dignifed, sonorous.
and musical.
H interests US more, however, with
his two spiritual tragedies of modern life.
where his problem is how to combine the
sharpest realism with poetic style. than
when he endeavors to introduce realism
into matter made poetic already to his
hand. One OF these two poems. The Wife
Is the terrible story of a woman who goes
out to getsbread in the one way she can
for her sick husband. and returns with it
John Davidson's work; what stamps II
with the peculiar impress of Mr.. Phillips
is the passage describing how the storm
already began their soothing work-ths
tragic cure of forgetfulness; and so in the
dawn beside the orpSe-
Mother and child that food together ate.
The whole poem suffers from a kind Of
overstrung. and it jars the nerves-a thing
which poetry should never do. But the
her child. who begs to be taken with her
ful@
But at the door q moment did she quail,
Hearing her little son behind her wall;
Who. waking. stretched his arms out to her wide.
And softly. Mother: AXE me with you" cried:
fh nc ~ooiu "a ctoiAo - asA
Her hand. and lag at every window bright.
Or near some stall beneath the wild gas-nars.
Toward him she turned. and felt her bosom swell
Wildly; he was so young. almost she fell.
Smiled at him with her lips. not with her eyes.
9TH last line is what you may call naked
poetry-such a line as Dante might have
written: and it more than redeems. the in
different end of the preceding couplet.
1.-THE most original thing in the book, how
ever. is the first poem: The Woman With
fication of the heroic couplet. II is a sin
gular enterprise. Mr.. Phillips sets ou to
tell a tragedy in which nothing happened.
slipping gin as She sews. and he notes her
eyes that had no inward scintillation, But
stared like windows in the peer OF day.
soul had gradually died in her. and left
her a body neatly dressed, well combed,
mechanically performing, the operations OF
tive; to make you feel the slow perishing
of a soul and feel the haunting terror Of
this survival"
the death of the woman's soul-a passage
considered by the reviewer one of Eek
traordinary beauty:
She felt it die a little every day.
Flutter less wildly. and more feebly pray.
suller it grew; at times she felt It pull.
Imploring thinly something beautiful.
And struggled In the darkness till daybrsak.
For not at once. not without any>strife.
1t died; at times it started back to life.
Now at some angel evening after rain
Builded like early Paradise again.
Now at some flower. or human face. Or ny.
With silent trembIe of %infnity:
Or at some watt Of fields in midnight sweet
Or soul Of summer dawn In the dark street.
The following passage from "Marpessa"
Is given as one that shows Mr.. Phillips
lat the height Of his technical achieve
ment":
How wonderful in q bereaved ear
The Northern Wind: how strange the summer night,
The exhaling earth to those who vainly love.
Out Of our sadness have We made the world
So beautiful: the sea signs in our brain.
And in our heart the yearning Of the mooa. =
To all this sorrow was I born, and since
Out Of a human womb ! came. I am
Not eager to forego it: I would scorn
To elude the heaviness and take the Joy.
For pain came with the sap. pangs with the bloom:
This is the sting. the wonder.
mo man in our generation" concludes
the reviewer, land few in any generation,
have written better than this"