Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-03-10
MASEFIELD WRITES
SONNETS OF FINEST
HTZABETHAN FLAVOR
-. "Good Friday" Newly
published, Contains Three
score Remarkable
Poems
OTHER VERSE VOLUMES
Ngo,ge'er " be. 10 seems to me
nJt,, not important to be Neto."
~ 70 e,s.-


Sir OtUen Seaman.
:, these were Victoria's days, we all
.i.,,d be talking of the philosophy" the
.hSa research of John Masefleld's new
wa, "Good Friday and Other Poems
pOysaor,Illan Company. New York;. Peo-
V, ala talk in that way of I'm Me-
Y.rIon, - and not unjustihably But, as
~. nresent idea of philosophy largely con-
syns itself with ratChets and drainage,
~. reviewer must evado so ponderous an
.s,,tude on the hook content If he can
~ aasa through his page n little of the
.s,ander and the quick beauty, the fineness
J, tha flowers and the stature of the hills
y the sonnet sequence which. inaptly,
4i.sos the volume It's position should have
ss.n before Good Friday" n play in
,hvned couplets slightly varied, on the
theme of the cruciflxion. For this is small
natter to what succeeds.
what succeeds proves incontestably Mr..
usseheld's heritage from the Elizabeth
me and this heritage would be quite as
.,oin were his sonnets not Gas they are)
s-,e shalSespearean forms, that Is, the
ssatorzain, For this model he is especially
slied. and from It he has evolved SO
noems which will, which must, be taken
as mart of Britain's dowry of verse. The
hest of these poems mix with the laughter
srd sigh of the great lyrists of Eliza
ss,b the brilliant enamel and stout join
,,re Of earlier ones. Sometimes they are
dueter.
wherever beauty has been quick ili cldy
Some ciipcroo OF u liUos, a spirit dloells'
p'itgd gired tcith the air that shakes the dotoer
"a ,hat by ,cafers tohoro the appies tan,
y o9e gienS o or yGcRs btaod g6 dS 6s % caH a2HloorS'
Tne X fne fGeSS sfgSS ioGs TIC MOOD tidt makes 1t
Then turn, ,gord, az act stirGt tho@g1t
That places Oiory. for, tChcrc beauty fought
O"af5 But "' The he" st g;Sn GSass tic isa0cs. the
Keen. Wg5"gd throagR deGd ti,ac. that cverrast-
There are certain great simplicities
which may be mistaken for conventions,
and IL is perhaps both the reward and the
scourge of writer like Mr.. Masefield that
his quest of beauty, pictured in those
ways so Elizabethan, may seem to the
passerby mere pretty vaporings of a
world wanderer. To the Too-Mentally
Eager, he has little to offer, no systems to
undo, no pathology, no eugenics, and it is
sure that the lmagista would hold him in
equal scorn with Sir Philip and Kit the
tosspot and Wild Will Shakespeare, the
sensual crew.
But even an Imagist, one would think,
could scarcely dismiss such things as mot
that the stars are all gone mad in Hea-
ven, 'or perhaps in Chasms of the wasted
past" For these things are not good
sonnets, they are a cry in the face of the
Sphinx, torch cast in the pit of unwar-
ranted night
Including them, along with their less
protesting fellows, in this book, Mr.. Mase-
field has shown that it is not necessary to
be New His earlier work attracted be-
cause 1t was different from the great bulk
of English poetry; these because they are
not different.
Irene Rutherford Mcleod, whose nearly
formidable name is on the title page of
Songs to Save Soul" in the neat i'm
print of b. W. HuebSch, is called "a rebel
singer" by her publishers, who add that
she is a prOtcgc of Mr. Masefield. The
two influences are sharply bisected In her
work; and the kindest and truest thing
that may be said is that her "uplift"
verses pull one down, and that her "re-
dictionary" verses draw one forward. Miss
Mcleod has sylvan touch that will grow
from charm to more thar that, with her
artistic maturity At present she lacks
the stamp of finality that is imprinted
on the most genuine of poetry; but
she has light lyricism that blows
like n little breeze and pale but
human pathos that are all too unknown
In modern lyrical writing. That "she has
touched the hem of two garments, Blake
and Francis Thompson" may be so but
her broideries are neither so rich nor so
precise
There is another volume of poems of
some Importance. "One Way of Love"
ouy Cuthbert Wright, published by Bren-
uho' MI Wright has n poetic future,
yes but too little prosodic past. One
pictures him as living on the doorstep of
mouse built of Shakespeare's sonnets,
n spite of the casual scene the modern
nln'' OF MS often exquisite lyrics. Deal
ing nencately with his one theme, (by no
means related to Browning's lines quoted
as the title) he has a somniac effect
through this very reticence, and I'm the
eVocatlon of beauty no less real than
huahge, he dims both the beauty and the
suangeness by an incomplete technic.
nut ne is beyond dispute poet, and with
a ., hriher grasp and more varied emo
uonal range, he is likely to turn green
me eyes beneath the laurels of some of
our more established singers.
Death and the Fool" the prolific Hugo
Won Hofmannstahls latest TO reach
america, recalls that he once wrote an
EieKtra," Englished by Arthur Symons.
.ha hammersteined by a regrettedIy alb
ss 81. Hhpresario, Then, one recalls, too,
mat Won Hofmannstahl also wrote the
s1ok OF The Rose Cavalier" ana one
"ishes one We're at the opera, anywhere
eAeept. reading death and the Fool"
SeFman mysticism has been responsible |
ior some rarities, but nothing more curl-
Gus than this symbolic drama of the
saIy nth century, Now and then the
Sulple S' patch shines, and the English ver-
soh sloh OF Elizabeth Walter is done with a
iaI pta. degree Of skill, 1t is published by !
'Aehard @. Badger.
mi
4 There is some pretty Typography in
ssthur ~ Hubbell Palmer's translation of |
Loems and Songs" by Bjornson, in the !
O,tsihal metres, and points of interest in |
pssh'y ias Tor those who constitute the Amer |
AZ, foundations special au-
oshee' That the points win not be ap- |
ssreht asi to most dislnterested readers prob |
soy so,y would be frankly admitted by the
soansl qon' Mr.. Palmers achievement |
Osai as.ltutes feat, and he is entitled TO |
tbn.,s from MISUNDERSTANDING en-
500 To HOI.n SNTOKED