New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1914-05-16
RECENT VERSE.

HEC6NI vGh0G'
THE WINE PRESS A TALE OF MAh.
Nv Alfred Moves. i2mo, PIP. 49, freo-
erick A. Stokes Company
LYRICS AND DRAMAS. by STEPHEN
Phillips. Emo, PIP. l7s John Lane oo"i'
pany. ~.
THE FLIGHT, and OTHER POEMS. BY
George Edward Woodbury.. limo PIP
1852. The Macmillan Company
CHALLENGE. By Louis Untermeyer'
i2mo, DIP. IA The Century Company
POEMS. BY Walter Conrad Arensburg.
12mo, pp. 121. The Houghton Miiiiin
Company
n somehow or other 1t had happened
that all unsuccessful attempts at
poetry were stopped at the source
IL we had nom OF us ever read 'or
written) any poetry that was not
poetry-it is very doubtful whether
that old and unending controversy as
to the relative importance, to poem
Of form and substance would ever
have arisen. In pure poetry the identi-
~ OF form and content is so complete
that we are not conscious OF the one
as distinct from the other. Pure
poetry--to take a phrase from MT
Bradley's admirable exposition Tin the
first of his oxford lectures)-"pu
poetry is not the decoration of pre-
conceived and clearly defined matter.
II does not consist of meaning plus
sound and imagery; its meaning is
itself. and nothing else. Only through
experience of imperfect poetry is the
habit of analysis into content and form
developed. Imperfect poetry is gen.
orally a succession of compromises
here a sacrifice OF sense to form, there
a sacrifice of form to sense. The re-
suit is that even where the two ele-
ments are fused We nevertheless, IN
our analytical moods, think of them
as separable-just as in our analytical
moods we think of orange as separaDle
into red and yellow, although, If we
had never seen red or yellow, we
should not imagine that orange was
anything but a unitary color
So it is that questions such as these
are apt TO arise whenever we read
poetry critically. How far is the erect
due to the underlying ideas, how taF
to the particular rhythm, the particu-
lar imagery, and so forth? Could the
same thing, or substantially the same
thing, be said in prose? Now, in many
great poems that part of the thought
which could be conveyed in prose is
slight and elusive, almost 10 the van
ishing point. SO often is this the case
that some people tend TO measure the
greatness of a poem by the smallncss
of its subject matter But this Is alto
gether wrong. The prose translation
of a great poem will always be an
utterly different thing from the poem
itself, because its emotional effect will
always be utterly different though 1t
need not be a negligible thing. There
are great poems of which bare prose
translation would be a very substan-
tial thing, and a very fine thing-would
even be in many respects a close par
allel of the original.
This is the case with Mr.. NOyess new
poem, The Wine Press" 1t is COM
pact with thought DIS well as with
feeling. War is it's theme-war as it
is lived by the common soldier Of to-
day. who fights without ever a sight
or a sound of an enemy; war that
means
Flesh against things feshless
Never the souls desire,
Never the flash Of steel on steel,
But the brain that is mangled under the
wheel,
The nerves that shrivel. the limbs that
Against a sheet Of fire
The story is startling and horrible,
but unescapably convincing. And it
is not the bare facts of cruelty and
bloodshed that give sharpest point to
the tragedy; it is the utter lack Of pur-
pose, Of will, on the part of the SOL
der
When YOU are lifted up Ike this
Between a finger and thumb,
And dropped you don't know where or
why,
And told 10 shoot and butcher and die
And not TO question, not to reply
But go like a sheep to the shearers
A lamb TO the slaughter, dumb.
AS foil TO the realities Of the thing
we have the dreams of the poet soldier,
Michael. who looks upon the Balkan
States and Greece as the hosts Of
Christ" who sings:
Reverse the Sword. The Crescent is rent
asunder
Lift up the Hit. Ride on with a sound
of thunder
Lift up the Cross. The cannon, the can
non are dumb.
The last Crusade rides into Byzantium.
and whose rhapsody is cut short by
the news that the allies have quarrellel
and are going TO fight
NAert,t 49,