The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-01-26
zzuE cHEsoxEE ROSE.

livery ssnthernsr who during the past few decades has kept imseif at all in touch with current thought about the best po- ems produced by American authors and who is fortunate epough to read the little vol tune, 'srhe Cherokee Rose" by zitsIlA Cooke viii have brought vividly to hIs mind the fate of sidney Lanier the sweet singer of the South. who was but litkie appreciated especially in his own section. untii death he'd cut short his career Here and there a critic had xiveu him . first. class review. but Lanier he'd never had the Eood fortune to write anything to bring him suddenly into wideepread notice. as aia sofpe of our other poets. There was, Or example, in Pee's Raven" a soiein.. swing and a weird. fantastic orixiunifty. and there was about his '.seiiss an ailfter- ative lit and an schoing ''cf the sound to the sense" that at once struck the atten- tion or every reader. So nearly every au- larity has been in6sntsd largely to some single happy inspiration that had about tt a sparkle o1 huxnor or pathos or of both combined. that every one could sae. ss1im Dluasc." with tts musical slang, advertised John Hay. TnA ''Heathsn chines'' did mora to hsanE Bret HaFts before the public than any volume he ever wrote. and wiil cRrie- toms -Betsv and I Are Out" ct once pop uiarisad him as writer of dialect verse that meets ready response from the pab- lie. Lanier, 3t ig true. touched one upon this chord. in his Power of Prayer" but tho poems, liks "The Marshes of Glynn.s that ltft him to the level es Poe. and Bryant, have come into wide aeeeptanee only alnee his death.
 Like Lanter in his lifetime, SO now Miss Cooke is not 90 widely knosn h her native South as she deserves fo be. Like him. she has never written a poem that was striking because t was abnormal She is iiks La nier. toe. in another aspect Her o,Aim fo any nse of dialect or upon any gjfk of lau- nor. but upon those qualities that enable the trne poet to tnterpret 10 as whatever b happiest and hiehest sn nature.
 Mics Cooke is an Alabama woman. who has made her home In Boston. where she is widely and tavcTabiy known. Butsamsd all hsr pheasant environments. this warm hearted seutAsrnsr has not fergottsa the land ef her birth. She hsloass te shas unseifish class of emigres of whom Mcnaea eavA 'aCoelnpn non nntnaas muEants
 The little book under review is entitled 'fshkrokse Rose" and that is the titla ok the, opening veTsea Tn the rich black much used for fencing. This flower fs net tA be compared with some of it's mora arnbi. tions sisters when bioominE singiy. but even then fl is beautiful with It's broad white and graceful petals But whage tt catches the eye and dazzies she imagination is when it almost amothsrs with iss hIooms the lux sriant green of the immense hedges thae stretch sway mile after mils srouna Ala bsma piantstions. 2 xihien of ioysainsEs well worthy of the beautiful veEasa. with which our author eonsseratas their mem- cry. One stansa is as scliows:
 with her loving arms embracing E Fstton Held and bFpaa piantstion How she chseFs kke heart of toiier
 Ana her radiant snow-whffe blogn0sns
 Seem s IsIss sa saaSs q w ~a.sssssssS ssSidsss
 1Ake the sacred vtstaJ virgins
 With thsir Iustrous lamps ef silver. But Q country flow'ret shss
 Yet no rose st court could bs
 Loveiier than the Chsrokes." means the best in the book.
 Naarly ail the objects faxnfliar to ths 9uthor in the home of her childhood she has embaitlaed ip beautiful verse. ''Ths Ala hA1na.s The Mocking Bird'' tthat match less 6euthsyn songstsro. "Ths Bips Bird" even sings or "The Alabama Peach"
 'Fer the roses of Juns
 And the mocking birds tuna
 Ths morn's rising Gliut.
 And the evenings pale tint
 The song Of the sea,
 And the wind'e niluetreigy,
 The stars slowing eyes.
 And the smile o8 blue skies,
 Are all in your reach
 Tn that ono juicy peach"
 Notice the following extract from "oeto. bsr Days" how the stately but smooth measure Of the verse fits In with the quiet season of which she sings:
 "How soft the sky where not cloud Goth And softer than the tender biss abov@ That other sky deep in the wavAless lake Upon whose shors nor birds nor bees A spirit touch the meansst thing makes
 fair
 And spicy odors rove the .amher als-- On crimson tree and cedaFs ontspread A Tnsliow radiance through the woodSand And wraps the fields in atmosphere of
 dreams."
 Harvest Days' Is another real gem, and like everything else in the book. proelaims the author an inspired worshiper at the shrine of nature. Indeed. her poet heart goes out toward all Gods creatures. What can be finer than this stanza from, '1The Man at the PiouEh7"
 "But walked with labor as his friend,
 The plying angel who did walt
 For outcaSt man at Eden's gate
 With comforting of large eEpend," Sc
 Space will allow of only one more qnota- tion. In Ships That Come In,' after a pa- thetic picture of the weariness of waiting and watching among many ships for the one that does not come fin, these are the stansas:
 ''Yet blow the wind east or blow it west. And let the mad breakers rage and foams Far over the seas, somewhere I know Some ship is gaiiantiy sailing home. Some heart runs OCT with exceeding Joy. Some heart is glowing with nsw-foand |
 light
 And l am as glad as glad can be That some other soul is glad touighti And still I am fain to watch the deep And atfII I wander the waye-swept sand. with yearning no speech has power to with prayer that my ship may come to
 land
 Aye ships are coming,Ia a hundred sails trace on the dim horizons line. And 'Welcomer cry to each and all, Though never a singie one is mine.'
 (Boston, Richard c. Badger,
 Newspapev waifs. New York."--Town and Country.
 oTOiA prohibition work in yotfr tOWnT !