New-York tribune., 1908-02-09
Gbe Ne.u'2lork Gribm,e &
SUNDAY. FEBRUARY 8, 1908.

The comniler Of new anthology Of contem-
p,rory verse WAS disturbed the other day be-
cause one of his reviewers had not realized the
fJl significance of the book. The critic thouoht
that the inclusion of material by authors quite
unknown had been accidental. Far from III,
ouafb the anthologist 1t was to make obscure
authors known to the world that he had pre-
pared his collection I'VE have been taunteu'
H.. saws. with the obvious fact that our poets
are more or less obscure. The immortalS theh-
selves were doubtless in similar plight before
t.,y published their first book. The aliusion Is
charming When will the makers of pleasing
LITTLE verses begin to understand that TO write
in rhyme is not necessarily to establish reia-
t,n, with the poetic art? Mr.. c. *. Shorter mas
an apt comment on this subject. The danger Oh
anthol0gcs.' he says. land indeed the danger
which besets all true poetry of to-day, Is the
lack of discrimination of those who give them
selves up to this form of bookmaking. Inc
term minor poet, is meaningless Ihere are
good poets and bad p0ets-poets and poetasterS.
But it is perhaps unreasonable to expect that
this solid fact will ever command general ac-
ccptance You may argue about it until all IS
blue but then the poetaster or his partisan will
say with an air of sublime wisdom, ''Of course
know the difference between great poetry ana
minor poetry: but no one wants to be reading
Homer and Shakespeare all the time
When Dickens died. leaving ''The Mystery of
Edwin brood unfinished. he left to his readers
one Of the most fascinating problems IN the
whole range of fiction They know that 1t is
hopeless, but they cannot resist the temptation
10 return to it. The dark business is only made
th., darker by Dckens's custom, of which Mr
Andrew Lang reminds us, of having viSnetteS
illustrative of the main points in his story
Crar Ijnr
thai document Mr.. Lang summarizes the scheme
drawn by Mr. c. A Collins for Edwin Brood
On the top Of the cover is Jasper, walking from
the cathedral and glancng at Rose and Edwin.
who are Stroling together in 4 very diSengaSed
way. The scheme is then unfoded as follows:
ON the left Neville Landless is kneeling to
Rose. who sits in garden chair and regards
him with no amatory eye on the rlght NeVlte
I.indieSs is chewing Jasper, as L thlhk, up the
spiral staircase of the cathedral tower. folloWed
un.ienably by CriSparkle. At the bottom Jasper.
with a lantern. is opening the door of a dark
vault: the lantern lights up the figure of Edwin
brood. who regards him with tranquility
which Jasper evidently does not share ihlS
can only mean that Jasper has been obliged to
open the Sarsea vault to find the ruby and dla-
mond ring. which, as he has learned Edwin had
in his pocket Christmas Eve. The ring is
evidence to JaSper's guilt even If the qulckiIme
has destroyed the corpus deIicti. However Ed
win is there, all alive.
At this point the troubles of the amateur
detective begin. What Mr.. Lang wants 10 know
Is this: If Jasper only dreamed that he mur-
dcrad Edwin. how did Edwin'S watch, chain and
scarfl,n get into the planks of the weir and the
bottom of the pool? He concludes that Jasper
'f...zled' the murder and went off into one of
his frances, while Grcwgious, proving about,
rescued Edwin All of which seems perfectly
re;,sonable-and leaves the mystery just where
We found it.
4 subject that never loses its interest fer the
student of literary craftsmanship is revived by
tin. London "Spectator" in article on the