The Montgomery advertiser. [volume] (Montgomery, Ala.) 1885-1982, 1902-10-19

written all over her, helped me to a
speedy conclusion of opinion. After a
formal greeting, / began to praise with
enthusiasm cert ain poems of hers. Win
a sort of shy reserve, not without tinse
of sternness. she replied: Sir, that IS
too much praise, and my ;nterogatlonS
concerning her education she interrupt ed
with an sir of protest and the words
20, sir, | beg you will not talk of that;
am not educated, nor 10 claim to be,
except in music
Afterwards, when she realized my SIN
cere appreciation of her work, and that
/ was not the regulation interviewer"
she became more cordial, and more and
more was l led to see the beautiful sim
plicity of her character To talk with
her was like looking into human soTl
and l am an old reader of men and wo-
men. A thing which greatly impressed
me was the virility of her work and
the very feminine way she went about 1t
can believe, as she herself says, that
do, sh. simply does in the way that seems
best to her, and l was not slow to dis
cover that in her heart of hearts she
keenly disliked coming before the pubic.
1t was a long time before she could be
persuaded that her poems had money
value, and whatever pleasure she might
feel in the creation OF poem she was
thoroughly 0isgusted with II, when "
was completed, and became its severest
critic The selection which Mr.. Stedmtn
had placed in his American Anthology.
l esteem by no means representative OF
Miss Cookies work. The very general DIS
satisfaction on the part of authors win
Mr. Stedman's Anthology is not to be
discussed here, but while / agree with
him that Miss Nancy's Gown, 0aken
from Doric Reed, is charming lyr'c,
as exquisite of its kind as may be found
in English poetry, 1t is not representa-
tive In her work, as in her personally
Miss Cooke unites many diverse quaIi-
ties. 1t is excellent. but does not taarIy
represent her; In the same book we d hnu
the sonnet "Pontius PLATE, WONDER
fully strong and original sonnet on
hackneyed theme. The sonnet on Schu-
mann Is one of the best musical sonnets
have ever seen and the Germans nave
copied it enough to express their appre-
citation The Two Maidens Is charming
in conception and execution and as true
to life as the warmest advocates OF re-
alism could desire. Among the many re-
views of Miss Cookies work nave never
seen the little poem, Responsibility
honorably mentioned, and yet how unique
and beautiful it Is. We have nothing OF
the kind in American poetry ~, inner man nan
sunshine in an Alabama Canebrake'
is a fine piece of word-painting, and as
Mr. Higginson, in The Nation, describes
it, full OF color" Waller, himselr. might
have written Inconsistencies and many
of her lines are worthy of Herbert and
Herrick Indeed, 80 much flavor has she
of Herrick, without in any sense lmltat-
ing him, that have more than once heatd
her characterized by literary persons as
"our American Herrick." Much of her
best work IL not included in Doric Reed.
Few Autumnal lyrics touch the heart
more than October Days, and The
Song of the Resurrection" published m
New England Magazine, is one of the
most stirring Easter poems which has APP
peared in America. Mechanical, technical
excellence Is one of the peculiar tri-
umphs Of our day, and much of our mag
azine poetry possesses little else, but
while ID is quite true, as another critic
has said, that Miss Cooke seems always