Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-05-26
TWO BOOKS OF POETRY
BY AMERICAN WRITER'S
Donald Evans and E. A. Robin
son Make Valuable Contribu-
tions to Years Verse

There are so many magazines of poetry
| Issued today some of them only today and
| some of them only yesterday, that the
| reader of poetry itself gets bit mixed.
Some Of the poetry they print is good and
some is not, but most OF Il Is superior TO
the criticism and theories about poetry
which is also TO be found there. Among
the poets who are still apart from move
ments there are two distinguished by
singular similarity of attitude, who are
particularly noteworthy. One, Edwin Ar
lington Robinson. has been known for many
years to the appreciative as the greatest
of living American poets. Naturally
schools are not for him. The other, Don
aid Evans, is a poet Of less Importance,
so far, and he is apart from schools because
there simply isn't one for him
Mr.. Evans has published several other
books, but his Two Deaths In the Bronx"
philadelphia, Nicholas Brown exhibits his
qualities with a strange ferocity and pas
sion To get over the great objection to
the book at the start, the writer submits
his desire that Mr. Evans should once and
for all write a perfectly dreadful shilling
shocker of sex That done, he could re.
turn to the subject in human way, with.
out his unnatural sensitveness, his obtrud.
ing moral sense, his immoral idea that sex
can be shocking. Prudery is not a be.
coming virtue in poet. The most delicate
and the most brutal and the most glorious
and the most vulgar of all human relation
POLITICALLY II yields itself only to the treat.
ment which recognizes all it's subteties and
all its wonders, It's m!serIes and its pow
ers, without exploitation and without fear
The book is a portrait gallery of profit
gates, etched with bitter acid. irony and
pity" cries Anatole France. Mr. Evans is
a more modern philosopher and there are
few instances OF pity. Perhaps that Is
why The Mother of God" which Is full
filed of human emotion is one of the best
of the poems, and the title poem, in which
the irony Is double.edged and the story
piteously told, is another. The reader should
not be misled There are such titles as
"Massed Screams in the book and poems
to Justify the titles But the whole is singu-
larly clear unhapply mordant and sharp.
The observation of mankind, in its less
noble moments. the analysis and the pic.
turing are equally arresting
But where Mr. Evans tries to absorb the
world into himself Mr.. Robinson tries to
set himself apart and his book "The Man
Against the Sky" (New York, Macmllan), is
an extraordinary example of what can be
called descriptive poetry. Mr. Robinson re-
pudiates nothing human, but he suffers no
Illusion. Because his passion is more re-
strained II is the more affecting, and the
misery of the title poem. its questioning
and it's end with the dark, tideless flood
of Nothingness" is appallingly beautiful |
Here are irony and love and pity and a
beauty of workmanship which is very
precious THE Town Down the River"
Captain Craig" and Children of the
Night" are Mr.. Robinson's other books of
verse. They are mentioned because the |
reader who knows them will understand |
the difficulty of writing about their author |
or even about them OF Mr.. Robinson may |
be said what was said of John Masehelds |
recent sonnets: that he attempts to do what |
all poets have done and what all poets |
must do, and is great because he does it |
well. His stuff is humanity His meter Is |
beauty. Whatever he may feel, his world |
Is still the most mystic the most puzzling |
and the most beautiful of any created in |
our time in poetry.
Brief are the words spoken of this great
poet because he is not to be captured in |
words. For the Imagists who are repre-
sented in an anthology (Some 1magist Poets. |
1916; Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company |
the brief word may also be spoken. but not |
for the same reason. Those who can, read. |
Those who cannot. may turn to the intro
ducton and find out why. NJ. Remy de
Gourmont Is quoted there, with evident ap.
probation, as saying. The sole excuse WHICH
a man can have for writing is to write
down himself, to unveil for others the sort
of world which mirrors itself in his indi-
vidual glass" Most of the imagists are
selves which cannot be granted the right
TO publish. They aren't interesting. Some
of their mirrors are warped. But the fall
lacy is that a poet can have any other rea-
son for writing than the desire (and the
ability to express with beauty and fascina-
tion the world. He must do it through him
self. to be sure. But he must give himself
up, literally devote himself to the world
before he can express it.