The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1901-12-08
HAWTHORN AND LAVEN-
DER.
By William Ernest Henley. !
(Harper & Brothers.)

Mr.. Henley stands, today, among the
leading poets. The publisher has given
this little book of verses a most APP
propriate dress. The book is printed
in fancy type and with suitable decora-
ton. The poems entitled Hawthorn
and Lavender" are exceedingly good
especially the lyrics. The title suggests
the subjects treated, Some of the
titles of the poems included in this
collection are, TT Came With the
Years First Crocus,'' I'm a Red April
Dawn" Deep in My Gathering Gar
den,' Il Talked One Midnight With
the Jolly Ghost"
Besides this collection there are 9TH
ers included in the book, some under
the title of London Types three
prologues and Epiceda.
There is a temptation to make nu-
merous extracts from volume of this
kind, where every poem one reads is
of such high quality, it is so full of
inspiration, so charming to the eye and
the ear
1t is too ambitious task to attempt
in this brief review to make a com
parison of Henley's poems with those
of older and better known, or with
younger and contemporaneous writers.
Here are three stanzas forming the
introduction to Hawthorn and Laven-
der:
my songs were once of the sunrise:
They shouted it over the bar;
First-footing the dawns, they flour
ished
And famed with the morning star.
fMy songs are now of the sunset:
Their broWs are touched with light,
But their feet are lost in the shadows
And wet with the deWs of night.
yet for the joy in their making
Take them, 0 fond and true,
And for his sake who made them
Let them be dear to you"
Did ever painter paint a word pic
ture stronger than the following in so
brief a space:
1.-THE night dislimns, and breaks
Like SHOWS slow thaWn;
An evil wind aWakes
On lea and lawn;
The low East quakes; and bark!
Out of the kind!ing dark,
A fierce, protesting lark,
High in the horror Of dawn"
Here are some verses that are al
most unriValed for poetical feeling and
expression
Deep in my gathering garden
A gallant thrush has built;
And his quaverings in the stiffness
Like light made song are split.
''They gleam they CLINT, they sparkle,
They glitter along the air
Like the song of a sunbeam netted
In q taOplp Of red -pold hair -
Here is a most Timely verse on the
month of November:
''These were the woods of wonder
We found so close and boon,
When the bridemonth in her beauty
Lay mouth to mouth with June
November, the old. lean widow,
Shifts and snivels, and shrills,
And the bowers are all dismantled
And the long grass vets and chills. "
The poems entitled London Types
are odd cOnceits. They remind one of
the poetry on comic valentines but, of
course, there is a thousand times more
real humor and satire in the descrip-
lions. Some of the types are the bar
maid the flower-girl," the drum
major" the news boy, 1.-The mounted
police" and 1.-The blue-coat."
Cardigan" by Robert w Cham
bers, is amongst the record making
novels of the season. AS a result of
the interest in the book, which has in
creased daily from the first day of its
appearance in the book stores, two new
editions have been ordered by the Har-
pers within one week. AS an histori-
cal novel, Cardigan" far outranks the
vast majority of it's rivals. Mr.. Cham
bers will spend the winter in the South,
where he will be hard at work on his
next novel,