New-York tribune., 1911-11-26
AN AMERICAN POET
The Life and Art of the Late
George Cabot Lodge.

CABOT LODGE. In two volumes
l2mo, PIP. XVI 33S; 455. The Houghton
Mifnin Company.
Behind very little of the verse written
to-day do we find a man. creature OF
brains and character worth while. 1t is
the genuine force of George Cabot
Lodges individuality that gives his work
place apart and assures him OF re-
membrance. He felt the pressure of life
and he thought about what he felt; not
in the fashion of the youth who mistakes
fancies for experience, sensation FOR
emotion, but as mature being, who
veritably suffered and aspired. He had.
therefore something to say, the rarest OF
virtues among our latter day poets. The
impres sion conveyed by his writings is
interestingly confirmed by Mr. Adams IN
his brief. deicately balanced memoir.
This portrait, drawn with kind of
latent tenderness, but studied above all
with an impersonally appreciative feel
ing for a brilliant mind. evokes in great
clearness the image of strong person
ality. 1t is plain that young Lodge was
uncOmmonly lovable, a delightful and
stimulating companion; but Mr.. Adams,
and Mr.. Roosevelt, too. i'm his introduc
tion 10 the new collected edition Of tho
Poems and Dramas fastens attention
upon deeper traits. II was good to know
him. rot simply because he had charm,
but because he had substance.
in one Of his shorter pieces. \ not
otherwise particularly srresting poem on
Les Bourgeois" there is an outburst
richly significant Of his own nature.
"Be something he exclaims, BE some
thing. good or bad, BE real" There he
expressed much Of his philosophy He
was more than book man." SAYS Mr.
Roosevelt He loved his friends. he
loved the life Of human interest. and the
throbbing pulse beat of cities" The war
with Spain found him eager for service,
and as captain of a gun crew he showed
admirable efficiency. Always he was
keen upon work, conscious Of abOunding
energy and resolved TO use It in mans
way. In his development as poet two
influences are 10 be observed-that of
pure poetic fervor and that of the
thinker and technician. Here. in part of
one of his letters from Berlin, where he
was for time a student, is mani
festation of the gusto that he felt as a
writer:
/ have written some new verse and
written over with much time and labor
good deal more old. It's with the greatest
difficulty that ] can take any other form
of literary endeaVOr seriously; and put
my heart in il. | can't. live and breathe
verse here all alone when | am not a
working machine. and it's all around me
like a garment. It's hard 10 express what
I mean-but the other day ! went early
rise through the snowy Thiergarten and
sort of sang inside all the rest Of the
day-odd rhythms with here and there a
word | was so content ] didn't even
want to write down anything | wonder
IL YOU have ever had the feeling sup
pose you have-of having beautiful
thing compose the scatteredness Of your
mind into an order a rhythm so that You
think and feel everything rhYhmically.
My expression is weak. but II you've had
if you'll know what ! mean.
The poems show the authenticity Of
this feeling of his. The heat i'm them
is "of the centre" a certain sensuous-
ness that he discloses, especially in
number Of the sonnets recalls Rossetti,
but his passion is neither so slumberous
nor so moody as that Of the Anglo-Ital-
ian poet; il breaks out. rather, i'm sharp
smokeless flame. on the other hand.
Lodges poetry, in revealing that second
influence to which we have referred
above. points also TO the fate which
clogged if it did not invalidate his in
spiration.
IN another of his Berlin letters he
says: II have acquired the ability to
write over poetry and work it into
shape. which is a great step forward,
believe and several OF my poems have
I been over in this way with much ad-
vantage" Doubtless he drew nearer in
this wise to perfection of form, and it
is with sympathy that we read Of his
efforts to win progress i'm his art by
hard work Wondering If his cOrre-
spondent sees in any of his things "a
clearer. firmer touch than before" he
adds: LAS l say, | try TO think so and
almost feel sometimes as if it really
were in me after all to speak a strong,
sincere word clearly for men TO hear;
| but then. on the other hand. whiles !
| think / am going To dry up, and in my
/ perfectly .ucid moments l see with a
ghostly distnctness how far short all
my work falls Of what ] seem sometimes
' 10 know as an ideal" Elsewhere, Il
| know my intention is not low" he says
whatever my performance may be. !
feel desperate sometimes that it all
comes so slowly and that / do no bet
ter; but ! grit my teeth and keep at it,"