The times., 1899-12-17
ample. Is e stanza from December in

oiHPIt' Is L SlduLd from december II
Scituate:''
Here is the ssptng open field,
Whore bitiGW upon hll4w rolls
Inc Sra Of daisies ia tse -u3
When June brings back the orioles.
And here is something like Emerson con-
densed into Quatrain:
Ant is a rubric for the soul.
Mans comment ON the book II earth.
The Sgellhou human summary
Which gives that common yaaJme worth.
Winter at Tortoise Shell" is full of
careless iOllity-careless of metres and
rhymes as well as of other things. These
are Northern poems. Then the author
voyages southwark and tells of white
Nassau"
There in the endless sunlight, within the s,urs
low sound.
Peace r4nies for lifetime at dcorway- unre-
HcUucd:
And velvet air goes breathing across the sea-
girt land
Til Tie sens begins TO vaken and the soul to
understand
Only born yagabond thus absorbs the
particular spirit Of every land wherein ne
tarries and makes the reader feel il as he
does. Boston. Small. Maynard d Co
Ivc.l
/ THE Poetry of American Wit and Hu-
4
can humorous poems, containing all the
old-time fayoTiIes and a great many new
ones. Nolhiug so quickly eiudes the mem
OTy as the authorship of comic poem.
+ 1t is so often the work of man who never
did much else of renown that the uufa-
miliar name slips out of ones mind as a
needle drops in the grass. This book will
be rather valuable as a reference book for
/ that reason alone.
Irr Hfz-f.a 1.lH,g -F
course. There is Bret Harte. with his "Ah
: sin" Holmes with the "OEe-Hoss Shay, >"
/ and several other things; Sake Carleton.
Riley, Burdette. Lowell, c. G Halpine and
Hans Bretmann" Leland. Curiously
enough Eugene Field is scarcely noticed,
though two or three Of his child-poems Ger
tainly ought to be found in the list G. T.
I Lanigan's poem on the "AhkoOnd of Swat
/ is in this collection; SO is J. 7. Fields The
! Owl Critic" which used TO be such a ia
Z vorite with amateur recters fifteen or
( twenty years ago The book is brought
! down to the present day, several newspaper
poets being represented, as well as one or
two others of literary reputation. Among
/ these are Sam Walter Foss, r. X. Munkit-
trick, Samuel Minturn Peck, Carolyn Wells,
! Charlotte Perkins Stetson, Paul Dunbar
and two or three writer's from Cap and
Gown" the annual volume of college verse.
(Boston. L. c. Page & Coz
wild Eden" by George Edward Wood
berry. breathes an intense love OF nature
and a somewhat mystical broodinC over
the deeper problems Of life. There are
few OF these poems which are likely 10
prove exactly popular; the book viii al
WAYS appeal to rather small public. A
fair example of Mr.. Woodberry's style is
in one of the lesser poems, The Hum
ming Bird Il begins in this way:
Bird IN the flower
Blossom s.j,it.
Whose Iiuy power
Doth the rainbow inherit,
4 breaitless minute
Flower lie iu il
Hang in the flower.
The Bat" is a longer poem and is strik-
ing in thought and vivid in language. a
certain tendency 10 formlessness is tho
thing which viii probably prevent the au-
thor becoming popular. One may under
stand him by the aid Cf qRick intuitions
but the average reader Of poetry does not
possess these in any extraordinary degree
New York The Macmillan Company
$L25.)