New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-02-06
RECENT VERSE
English Poets and an Anthol
ogy of Imagistes.

rmLr TIE King AND oTFEF POEMS ms, .. By
fob. Nss-nel. l2mo. ~ ~ Tie MACMILLAN
'' W Is, IN. Housh.or NIirln tomp.ny
AvLrcA AID oTHEE IOTMs By " J
u.--c. Emo. ~. ~. III, John Ian. Com
pfs NfAGIsTES A. Anthology Emo pp s..
Ncv York Ah-'' ard Charles Bon.
Now tina. Masofcld's Angus, 1914
g out in book form, j, is TO be hoped
that people will cease their complain
ing about the poetry called forth by
the present war The complaint is
foolish in two ways: First. because
one mas no right 20 expect poetry 20 De
written in the midst Of hurricane,
and. second. because there nave al
ready been large number q notable
var poems tina: IS, two: Maseticld's
md Chesterton's. Masefe,d's poem
appeared first in the October English
Review" and is contained in the pres
ent volume; Chestcrton's The Wife
CT Flanders appeared in "The New
Witness" and is reprinted in Songs
and Sonn.ts of England in War Tine
l. is hard to say which is the more
notable. Neither, one may suppose,
will be very widely popular Nase-
fields is pitched too low for that,
Chesterton's too high. Masefeld is
pensive. melancholy. sombrc; the metre
is that Of Gray's "Elcgy.' and the tone
is not unlike that Of Gray, but even
more subdued, more eleGiac, more re-
mote Chcsterton. on the contrary, is
perhaps 10 some cars positively shrlll;
scorn and wrath arc in mis- mood, and
the effect is that Of compact Grafton
rather than Of song;
You have no word to break, no heart TO
harden.
Ride on and prosper You have lost
youI spurs.
Yet, though both are peculiar, both
are noble poems. But Ms.efeld's alone
concerns Us here.
We have noted the almost eXag-
cerated calm Of the poem. The land
scspe is so unruf'ed. the quiet so in
tense. that the faint rumor OF war
heard i'm the pauses OF the lines pos
scsses more than ordinary significance:
The harvest not yet won, the empty
bin.
The friendly horses taken from the
stalls;
And so by ship to sea, and knew nc
more
The fields Of home, the byres, the
market towns,
Nor the dear outline Of the English
shore.
This brief citation is enough; YOU
see his method. He is going TO make
England neartbreakrgly beautiful
drowned in familiar peace, permeated
with memories Of unknown genera
lions OF dead men brooded over with
Such dumb loving OF the Berkshire
loan
As breaks III. dumb hearts OF the Eng
fish kind.
lie is going TO ring the changes,
simply. like an srtless rustic poet. on
the word English; recall the sights
and sounds common 10 all Engllshmen,
and very precious:
Beyond the hedge the sheep bells n
the fold
Stumble on sudden music and are
still:
The forlorn pine woods droop above the
void.
To the end he is going 10 maintain the
mood the sense OF war breaking in
upon but failing 70 disturb that high
serenity:
And silence broods like spirits on the
brac,
A glimmering moon begins, the moon
light runs
over the grasses OF the ancient wav,
Rutted this morning by the passing
guns.
The narrative poems. The River"
and The Wandcrer" are slow Of mo-
tion and unimpassioned. but touched
with quiet beauty. OF the poetic
drama. "Philip the King" the less said
the better Mssefcld must have writ
ten il in his sleep; no doubt he has by