New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1911-06-17
Literary ,NesOS and Criticism


too much; in her contentment with non
est diction and the simplest rhythmic
movement she has been able to give tle
persuasive expression to her Thoughts oil
which sincerity is always sure we cite
a characteristic poem:
JANUARY.
Along the crossroads drifted snow les
No nearer traveller than the moon has
To gain the turnpike from the windward
And over buried fences she can sweep
Unbroken shadows. In warm ceuars creep
Mid clustered berries blue ana orange pleh'
Out from old knotholes wary squirrels peep
No sound. no step. until cutter turns
With bells and laughter plunging through
the drifts:
Break their first track together. faueh'
lifts
Their horse his feet before them pace by
And, looking back. each with the omen
burns.
Throughout the hook Mrs. Adrich
shows the same traits that are revealed
in this sonnet. sympathetic reflection on
human life and an artistic sense of what
is most typical in American landscape.
Her prevailing sentiment is optimistic
and spiritualized. and in her use OF
words she avoids preciosity with
wholesome instinct that is by itself
merit.
Mr.. Edwin Arlington Robinson is
fairly beguiling figure among the minor
poets OF the moment-when he knows
what he wants to say and is at pains
to speak to the point. Too often, how
ever, he suggests that he has not quite
mastered his own thought or that he
has overestimated it's value for poetic
use. Then he is vague. as in his titular
poem, The Town Down the River" and
in the long soliloquy which he calls IAN
Island" We feel that he is driving at
something suggestive, but he has not
the ina gination to round out and en-
force his idea. So with the three or
four notes on character which come at
the middle OF the book; We get hints,
but only hints. II Is well for the poet
to commune with himself. but when he
invites the reader into his confidence he
ought to give the latter something in
which TO be really interested over and
over again in this little volume We begin
a poem with the best will in the world,
rather liking Mr.. Robinson's accent, but
before he is finished his tale we are
more or less at sea and, in fact. some
what bored OF course. writer's Of his
obscure habit may always taunt the in
appreciative reader with want Of the
clairvoyant gift-but it is the function
Of the true poet TO exercise that HIM
self. Occasionally. as in "Miniver
Chevy" or Uncle Ananias," Mr. Robin
son takes a plain motive and exploits il
in plain fashion. producing tolerable
verse. More often the reconcile nature
Of his writings seems rather 10 disguise
confusion or poverty of thought. What
he can do when he keeps to the shadows
is fairly enough shown in this:
THE COMPANION.
Let him answer as he will.
Or be lightsOme as he may.
Now nor after shall he say
Norn-out words enough TO kill
Or to lull down by their craft.
Doubt, that was born yesterday.
When he lied and when she laughed.
Let him find another name
For the starlight on the snow,
Let him teach her till she know
That all seasons arc the same,
And all sheltered ways are fair
still. wherever she may go.
Doubt will have a dwelling there.
For a clever writer. Mr. Maurice Bar
ing, who is nothing if not clever, shows
an extraordinary insensitiveness TO the
distinction between prose and verse. He
begins a sonnet with couple OF lines
like these
Shall 7 pretend that 7 no more perceive
The peerless worth Of Your high qualities
His book of COLLECTED Poems" is full
OF this sort OF thing. lie has facility
and the neat literary sense which en-
ables a writer 10 put a bit Of verse to-
gether in presentable fashion, but
whether he is writing lyrics or dramatic
poems whether he is casual and brief
or grand, gloomy and peculiar. he dis
closes the same readiness to turn, in the
name of poetry, an altogether common
place phrase. One naturally assumes
that when a man has got to the point Of
bringing out his COLLECTED Poems" he
has put some serious achievement to his
credit, but we have sought in vain in
this volume for some justification Of the
pretence implied in its title.
The author Of Bell and Wing" Mr..
Frederick Tanning Aver is unmistaka-
bly, man Of meditative habit, a shrewd
reader OF the old authors and a shrewdcr
critic Of life. He is. too. a humOrist
who might have taken a sardOniC drift
if he had not been touched by the sweet
ness and beauty that are to be found In
pier with belief in courage. If, with
all his resources, Mr. Aver does not com
pletely take us captive il is because,
while there is thought in his book. he
cxerts no really creative power His in
dubitable emotion never rises into the
heat OF passion that transfgurcs a
theme. and though he has an enthusi-
asm for beauty he does not give rs
beauty in his pages. His diction like
his ideas. has force rather than charm.
One surmiscs from his taste for oddities
o. character and from his mode OF
sketching them that he has read his
Browning TO some purpose. If there is
one note more than any other sounded
in his book IT is the note OF resolution
and high cndcavOr Grasp the supernal
hour" he cries. and energies his plea