The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1905-04-30

have proclaimed to SO great an extent
her claims for distinction.
Personally Mrs. Fenollosa is interesting
and all the more so because her PERSONAL
ity was for long time yelled under a
nom de plume. She has written extensive
ly, poems and fiction, She has Travelled a
great Zeal, is conversant with Eastern
literature and lived at one time in Japan
Ii was after her return TO this country
from Japan that she was an assistant
to the librarian of the Boston pubic IL
brary, and owing to her mastery OF the
JsIancse language and her knowledge OF
the | literature Of that country, she was
placed in charge of the japanese sec1oh
in tho Boston library.
Mr. Fenolosa is a Bostonian, in fact as
much of a Bostonian as Mrs. Fenollosa IS
a Mobilian. That they are now residing
in a city as typically southern as MO
bile is a source of pleasure among MO
bilians who knew Mrs. Fenollosa as
girl Their house is on Spring Hill
charming place, and there they nave
gathered about them a brilliant circle OF
friends Mrs. Fenollosa is a very hand
some woman.
In reference to literary trend, the Lit
erary Digest says in part:
A perusal of Jessie b. Rittenhouses
new volume of criticism, THE Younger
American Poets" suggests reflection On
the extent to which the poetry of our day
Is transfused by patriotic and natiohal
sentiment. Miss Rittenhouse restricts her-
self to the consideration OF poets Who
have been born during the last nan cen
fury and "whose place is still in the
making"
In the case of several of the poets treat
ed. Miss Rittenhouse emphasizes sense
of detachment from modern NE. she
describes Lizette Woodwork Reese as
| IAN Elizabethan, not by affection put
by temperament" she points out lhal
"the oriental poems of Mr.. Scotland have
often a greater vitality than the oeci-
dental ones" because of their deep root
ing in life, though life foreign TO US
she notes that many OF the VERSES u
Miss Edith M. Thomas deal with motlYes
ORA wn from classic sources," that Mary
Mcneil Fenollosa lin her eastern poems
is every whit the artist in her western
her occidental poems, she Is without spe-
cial distinctions" of the work OF Louise
Imogen Quincy she remarks that II
would be hard to say with what race clas-
eicism it is tinctured. Rather say that she
is a classic by temperament and mas
drawn to herself, as by chemical affinity,
such things as are rare and choice in the
world of books and life, and has FUSED
| them in the alembie of her own nature
until the resultant blend is something new
| and strange, having raey tang ana
1aNOr
| of all the elements of nature in the work
| of American poets as compared with the
| treatment of the same theme in the poetry
of Canadian singers such as Bliss car
! man and Charles G. d. Roberts, MISS
| Rittenhouse says:
! "What is there about Canada that sets
the blood of her poets a-tingle and lends
magic to their fingers when writing Oh
| her? What is there in Grand Pre- s barren
| reaches by the tide or in the marshes or
! Tantramar that such a spell should wait
upon them, calling the roamer
! Back into the looming wonder,
The Companionship of Earth?
With American poets of the present day.
| despite their feeling for nature, it IS
! rather her beauty in the abstract than
any particular locality with which they
| chance to be associated that inspires them
though Mr.. Cawein in his allegiance to
| Kentucky furnishes a marked exception
| to this statement-but the Canadian poets
| with passion like that of lover, sing
of the haunts that knew their first de-
votion. now with a buoyant infectious
| note. now with a reminiscent sadness. In
| short the Canadian poets seem TO nave
a sympathetic identity with their coun-
! try. an interchange of personality by
which they reciprocally express each
| other"