New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1910-04-17

group to say that the energy OF that group
was TO some extent diSspated in metaphysical
utilities and obscure wordiness. The Dial" in
Chicago has been content TO dispense counsel
about books in Straightforward fashion. 1t has
done good work and every one will wish that 1t
may multiply indefinitely its thirty years of
success.
Alusion was made in this place last week to
the inquest held in '"The Athenaum' on The
Present State of Poetry" 1t Is not very
Coura ging, but at least the Muse is honored in
England. More than three hundred men and
women sat down in a London restaurant the
other night, under the auspices of the Poetry
Recital Society, to dine and discourse, and
amongst them were individuals claiming des-
cent from Chaucer, Shakespeare, Sir Philip
Sidney Milton, Herrick, Wordsworth, and any
humber of other immortals Mr.. Mackenzie
Bell was there TO uphold the proud ori1amme
Of Hogg, and the line of Keats was represented
10y Mr.. Hammer Swaffer. But, as The Daily
Telegraph" remarks, "of massive physique ard
clad in native dress, the most picturesque figure
In the company the Maori chief, Ran
giuia." He it was, in fact, who made the SEN
satiOn Of the evening. Lord COlerdge said
some pretty things about the bards. the Duke
of Norfolk expressed the hope that the chair
man of similar gathering held hundred
poets Of the present age sang Of the roar of the
motor trumpet or the rush Of the aeroplane
through the air above u.s." and Miss Elsie
EOgerty read, "amid much applause" an ode
by Mr.. L. l. Taylor. But this is what Rangiuia
did:
Mounting the platform, he sang couple of
native songs in excellent voice and approved
musical style, and he played his accompani-
ments on the pianOforte in fashion of which
the best musician in the company need not
have been ashamed. Responding to the vocif-
erous encore which awaited him after he had
finished his second song. he further delighted
the assemblage with yrile representation of
the native war dance.
Who shall say that poetry in England is not
looking up? If only Chaucer and his goodly
fellows in the Elysian Fields could have
dropped in, to enjoy Rangiuia's poetic pirouette.
Good news from Mr.. William Michael Ros-
sett! For myself" said he to an interviewer
the other day. Il live in the past, but do not
know that for public purposes there is very
much that is new to be said either about us or
our circle" BY ''us' he means of course the
Pre-Raphaelites. We dare say that we will
hear good deal more from one source or an
ether, about that devoted band, and indeed we
shall not be sorry, when we receive such reIni-
niScencCS as those which Mr.. Hueffer is print
ing in "Harper's Magazine" But It is nice to
know that Mr.. w. NJ. ROssetti is Mt any rate
beginning to slacken in his Pre-Raphaelite
LColl-making. The only thing that he thinks
needs emphasizing about his brother Just now
is Dante Gabriels intense manlineSs" There
is tendency, il seems, to cOnfOund him with
some of his weak and decadent followers This
is a mistake. "Masterful, passionate, tingling
with vitality, teemng with ideas, he was the
essence OF yirile strength" Possibly it was
bis possession of these traits which led him to
call Walt Whitman ''sublimated Topper" but
there. according to brother William, he was
wrong. The latter, seeing few signs of new life
IN contemporary verse, pins his hope on Walt.
81 don't know whether Whitman can be
adapted to the future he says, but / fancy
the future viii have TO adapt Itself to Whit
man" Poets Of the future please note