New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-06-05
CRITICISM
AND BOOK NEWS
Some Modern Poets and Their Work.
Good Study of the English Poets
aureate-Court Revelations

the poet, and he begins 70 argue with
HIS neiEhhor:
He IS all pine and am apple orchard
Nv apple trees will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines
He only says. Good fences make good
Spring is the mischief in ne, and I
wonder
II could put a notion N his head .
"II'ly do they make good nelghborS7
Wber. there are cows But here there
are no cows.
BEFORE built a wall Ia ask 70 know
What was walling in or w6lllng out
And 20 whom ! was like 20 give on ence'
Something there is that doesn't love
wall,
That wants It down" l could say
Elves" 20 him,
But its not elves exactly, and Ia
rather
He said +, Tor himself see him there
Bringing a stone Graspcd firmly by the
top
In each hand. Ike an old stone-savaGe
armed.
He moves in darkness rs it seems to me,
Not o. woods only and the shade OF
trees.
He viii no, 60 behind his fathers say
ing.
And he likes having thought Of it so
well
He says again. Good fences make good
neighbors.'
Az we read on we were impressed
more and more with the vitality and
convincing directness Of the book. IL
is certainly written with the eye on
the object" = ever q book was, and
with the mind acting as skilled IN
terpreter TO the eye. In brief, salient
narratives each one gaining in slgnlh-
canoe from the pattern formed by the
whole and having It's color heightened
hv contrast with the others the spe-
cal quality Of New Hampshire farm
life Is revealed; its own peculiar kind
Of grimness. Of harshneSs, OF pathos
IFS own characteristic flashes Of sun
shine and quiet laughter. The most
moving Of the poems, perhaps, is The
Self-Seeker" Il is the tragedy Of a
mill hand 10 whom the whole romance
o. life lay in the discovery Of rare
mountain wildfowers. He IS made
cripple through defective machinery IN
the mill. and the incident OF the poem
IN his accordance of five hundred dol
lars from the company's lawyer in re-
lease Of his claims. The brave non
cbalance OF the man in the grip Of
despair. the indignation Of his friend,
the business Ike haste of the lawyer,
are all drawn with a simplicity de-
void Of crudeness. and with an en-
tirely unsentImental dehcacy OF feel
ing.
Even as one reads. however, the cues
ton keeps cropping up in ones mind,
What is Il or IS there anything that
Ny. Frost gains by writing In verse
Certainly not poetic beauty IN any ordl-
nary sense He has not even tried for
that-luckily, one thinks, If one has
read "A Bows Will" Nor can u prop
erlv be said that he obtains the ad-
vantage Of concentration and brcvlty,
for he could have had that IN prose.
There is really no valid law as 10 the
minimum length Of prose short story
many OF the stories in James Steph-
ens's Here Are Ladies" are as short
as Mr.. Frosts, and their brevity gives
them the same effect OF swift lncislon.
There is Just one thing, in our opinion.
which Mr.. Frost docs gain by writing
in verse he does gain, queerly enough
a heightened effect Of realism. But he
gains il by a sort Of unconscious trick.
The secret lies in the accident az
least so far as Mr.. Frost is concerned
il is an accident that verse rs an un-
usual vehicle for realistic fiction; the
unaccustomed conjunction Of verse and
realism makes realism seem douoiy
real. One finds ones self constantly eH-
claiming, as one reads the homely, IN
i. ~ ~
Frost's people, How natural" How
exactly ike life", whereas, if one found
the same language in a novel one would
take il far more as a matter OF course.
We dc not wish 70 belittle Mr.. Frosts
mower as a realist; on the contrary, we
think It very remarkable. He has keen
psychological insight and the strictest
sense of fidelity TO fact a fidelity
which is not in the least warped even
By the deep strain Of equalitarian and
/ humanitarian feeling which permeates
his book. But we do think that the
aid he gets from metre is an ADVENT
tious aid and we think IT not unlikely
that he will some day find a frmer foot
hold in prose.
The Spoon River Anthology" has,
we confess, rather knocked the breath
out of us A couple Of hundred Ibsen
plays in tabloid form taken at sit
ting one ought 20 have a year or so
10 react properly 70 that! 1t is with
hesitation and diffidence that we re
cord our first impressions.
Spoon River is small, mean West
ern town, and the flowers OF the can
thology" are the musings Of the dead
people Of Spoon River as they lie side
by side in the churchyard Each
writes &c ~ were his own frup opi-