New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-02-05
A POETS TRAVELS
Rupert Brooke's Impressions of
Us and Others.

LETTERS FROM AMERICA By Hu!sr' Brooke sd,e
4 W,h preface by Henry james Portrait l-mo
I'D 1un l>l. Charles SINNERS Sons
II is only natural that the romance
Of Rupert Brooke's brief life, linking
him or the one hand 10 Shelley and
Keats and Chatterton, and on the
other 70 Byron, should have led 20 the
erection 10 his memory OF PEDESTAL
somewhat out of proportion TO the
+ slender, though beautiful, figure OF ms
] achievement. Time will allot him his
more modest place on the scroll OF
English poetry. but for the moment,
and not by mere contrast with preVa-
lent mediocrlty alone. he was Englands
one true poet Of the war.
No wonder that we are 70 have all
his literary output IN book form. II
is not, IL could not have been, large.
There are his two volumes @. verse;
a study Of John Webster and one-act
play are still TO come; this volume OF
newspaper correspondence completes
the tale
Brooke started on his visit to this
country, Canada and Samoa IN 1913,
very young mana very young Eng
lishman fresh from Cambridge, solemn
rather than bumptious, convinced that
the only possible standard OF compari-
son was that Of his own country and
people. and ingenuOUsly ready 20 rem
der snapshot judgments accordingly.
I, does not matter. All he saw Of US
was New York and Boston and Cam
bridge. New York bewildered him,
Boston made him feel az home-it
looked English and had a Tory at
mosphere-and Harvard, while new
when compared with Cambridge and
oxford. appeared 10 him to have al
ready assumed in this crude, new
country ar analogous position OF age,
tradition and authority. Boston lady
told him that what is wrong with
America is this demOcrGcu," and he
thought so, too. What Is more, when
he reached Canada he perceived the
same blight doing its fell work. Only
Ontario won his appreciation because
il is so stanchly English. Toronto
calls itself T'ranto; and Sault ste
Marie is almost impertinent. going
the land Of Cholmondeley -Chumley one
better in calling itself $500 abrupt
w." The further West one travels IN
Canada the more pronounced becomes
the evidence Of American influences.
the looser the bond that binds the
Commonwealth 10 the Mother Country.
Il was well for English literature that
Brooke did not linger long in Samoa.
The island cast its spell over his poets
soul lie might easily have become one
Of its lotos eaters.
But though the civilization Of the
northen half Of our continent failed
to win Brooke's immature approval,
he had sensitively receptive eye for
the beauties among which that civil
ization lives and the beauties II has
already created. If the phantasmagori
Of Broadway's electric advertising APP
palled him. he saw the grandeur Of
the American architects solution of
the skyscraper problem. lie saw those
structures in the softening haze Of
early morning from the Bay; he saw
them at twilight and In their dim,
towering aloofness at night.
Their strength, almost severity,
Of line and the lightness Of their
color gave kind OF classical feel
ing, classical and yet not Of Eu-
rope Ii had the air, this block Of
masonry, of edifces built 70 satisfy
some faith, for more than inme-
date ends Only, the faith was un-
familiar. 1t came upon me,
at that moment, that they could
not have been dreamed and made
without some nobility. Perhaps the
hour lent them sanctity. For |
have often noticed since that IN the
early morning, and again for a lit
tie about sunset, the skyscrapers
are no longer merely the means
and local convenience for men 20
pursue their purposes, but acquire
that Characteristic of the great
buildings of the world, an existence
and meaning OF their own.
This IL admirable writing. and the
book Is full OF IL There Is q memorable
picture of sunset seen through the
vista OF one OF our cross streets. The
1.-THE grace of our college athletes cap
tivated this young, eager searcher after
beauty; "Mr. NiJinsky would find them
repay study" On his way 10 the vii
derness on Lake Superior he for d mo-
ment became one OF the democratic
crowd. II was on q Sunday excursion
steamer. Bathers and picknickers on
the shore gayly waved towels, garments,
lunch napkins at the passengers, who
responded with zest. "a man in red
shirt and bronzed girl with flowing
hair slid past in a canoe. We whlstled,
sang and cried 'SnoOky-oOkums! and
other words Of occult meaning, which
imputed love 10 them, and fooiishness.
They replied suitably, grnned and were
gone The human race seemed jolly
bunch, and the world a pleasant, open
air afFair-'some world in fact" On
by train, ever further away from civil
zation. A figure staggering between
the rails. 1--WE slowed up, shouted. and
finally stopped. lie was very drunk.
The driver and the doctor helped him
into the van. There he stood. and look
ing around said very distinctly, i do
not wish 90 travel on your - -
train. So we put him of again, and
proceeded Such is the West"
The American wilderness revealed
/ Itself 20 this exquisitely sensitive tenn
permanent. and conquered him. II gives
sensations which tanned, groomed Nat
ure In Europe lost ages ago-the virgin
/ forest where man has never trodden,
whose whispering silence has never
been broken. majesty that soothes
while II awes.
Il is that feeling Of fresh lowell
ness that impresses itself before
any detail OF the wild. The soul
or the personality seems 20 have
indefinite room TO expand. There
IS no one else within reach, there
never has been any one; no one
else ~ thinking of the lakes and