The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-12-04
NEW BOOK NEWS


aliasesNyere for one and the same bear. Ot how that One Great Bear was hunt ed and caught MT. Seton tells in a way to charm the heart out of any boy alive. We leave the story for the boys them selves to read in breathless haste. May many little fellow find the book atop his heap of Christmas gifts!
 Poets and Poems. publisher who will bring out a. volume of verse is becoming as rare almost as the Dodo. It is surprising.. therefore. to find several of the leadin g' houses offering verse for this seasofi's attractions. Now poems, I lately learn. is necessity for magazines. not a luxury as we are taught to fancy. A poem is a needed bit to enliyen the look of magazine pages whether any body reads it or not. A quatrain, or trivolet is very acceptable to finish on a page that the long continued in our next" leaves half blank. So the poet has become at last a useful person in the eyes of the magazine editor. The editor of publication. however, has not yet discovered his value-commer- cial value. we mean, of course. There fore the poet is left with a lot of mag azine grain ungarnered. But better days are dawning. The people love to be told great truths in rhyme. They love now and then to be sung to in tuneful measure. Ere long the pub fishers will learn to know this fact and we shall have more volumes of verse. Several of the leading houses are already congratulating themselves even this early in the book season on having good sellers" in volumes of verse.
 Music and Other Poems.
 One of the most welcome volumes of poems of the year is the volume. Music and Other Poems. by Henry Van Dyke.
 Dr. Van Dykes verses are divided into the following groups: Odes. son. nets, legends, lyrics. greetings and in- scriptions.
 Of the first grouping Music" is the most ambitious effort. The ode abounds in graceful conceits descrip- tive of musics charms: Thou flower of rapture and thou fruit of grief. ," The most original and most fastening in memory are the opening lines of IL: Thou art the Angel of the pool that
 sleeps.
 While peace and joy lie hidden in its Waiting thy touch to make the waters In healing murmurs round the weary soul.'' ..
 The sonnet is Procrustian shed up- on which every poet is compelled to lay a fancy If the idea is too large to fit, 1t must be Topped off, if too small to suit, it must be stretched to the set dimensions of fourteen lines. Dr. Van Dyke puts his sonnets in the Italian nnttn ha nT ,a group is the first one entitled Work Let me but do my work from day to
 day, In field or forest, at the desk or loom,
 In moving market-place or tram gull room, Let me but find it in my heart to say, When vagrant wishes beckon me astray,
 This Is my work; my blessing. not my doom;
 of all who live, I am the one by whom
 This work can best be done in the right way"
 Then shall I see it not too great, nor small.
 To suit my spirit and to prove my powers.
 Then shall I cheerful greet the la pouring hours, And cheerful turn, when the long shadows fall,
 At eventide, to play and love and rest, Because I know for me my work is best.
 The two narrative poems: "A Legend of Service" and the original and most delightfully."- unique legend of the ori- gin of the kingfisher: "The Vain | King are decidedly the gems of the volume.
 The lyrics do not show the poet at his best, they lack the lit, happy song fitness that makes a lyric finger on the heart-strings. Spring in the South," " is one of this group that mirrors | much of the beauty of our Southland. Last years cotton plants, desolately lowing,
 Tremble In the March wind. ragged and forlorn;
 | Red are the hiilsides of the early ploughing,
 Gray are the lowlands. waiting for the corn
 Earth seems asleep still, but she's only