The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1917-02-25
.GBS0N'S GREATNESS
As REAL|ST IS SHOWN
Illumination of Commonplace
Great Gift Of Rising
Young Poet.
SIM PL E S T MATERIAL
Out of Plain Lives English
Singer Brings Forth
Real Beauty.
SIM L E S T MAT ERIAL

the rut and we all protest and insist
that he is an impossible person and
I nally fall in line ana wear a new
rut. says the Kansas City Star.
VIC become accustomed TO Il particu-
lar sort of conventional fiction and a
rcalist like Tolstoy suddenly Jars us
out of our accustomed ways OF think
Ing. We take kindly to pretty cornu-
cdpia decorations until n Brangwyn
shows what can be done with a blast
furnace. So it has been with poetry.
1t became conventionalized in the lat
ter part of the nineteenth century, so
that everybody lost interest In it and
no publisher had the hardihood to bring
out II book of poems except at the
expense.
Then came the modern irrurtion OF
free verse and such. Teachers Of litcra-
ture were scandalized and said it was
not poctry-hut people jumped for ii.
Eminent critics still protest that The
Spoon River Anthology" has no right
to be considered in a. class with THE
ldyls of the King But the public has
not given Il thought to classification.
1t simply has found some cXtraordi-
naiily vivid bits of insight into life, and
has been CORE spondingly fascinated,
Gibson Great ReaLst.
These considerations come to mind
in connection with the recent volumes
OF that young English poet Wilfred
Wilson Gibson. His books. Daily
Bread" printed in 1913; Battle" 1916,
and Livelihood" 1917, produce an ex-
traordinary impression Of reality. They
suggest some of those powerful pieces
of realism that Erangwyn exhibited at
the San Francisco exposition. His re-
suits are achieved with the simple and
straightforward use of the most ordi =
nary material. But he has the faculty
of bringing out the poignancy of tragic
situations in daily life.
Take, tor instance, the little drama
in DAILY Bread" called The Wound.
The scene is II tcncmant room. the per
sons. Hctty Drovcr, Phillips Wife. Su-
san Wclch, her mother, and John Rid
die, "a ships rivctcr. There are no cS-
plantations, but the reader gathers that
HCtty and her husband uuarrcied be-
fore he left for his work. and that ht
knocked her down. cutting cash in
her forehead. Her mother tries 10
find out about it, but the daughtt
refuses to tell, saying only that he
husband has much to try him, and that
she has II temper. AS they talk John
Riddle comes in to tell them that Phil
lip lost his nerve while OH a beam, fell
and lived only y moment. AS he died
he whispered, Lass forgive me-" lict
ty is stunned then she says:
Forgive you, lad!
There's nothing to forgive
Twas ] who angcrcd YOU; my foolish
tongue
! It's | who need
But, I'm dazcd,
| And don't know what I'm saying 1"
Nay. Nay. You did not hear Alright
| Whole Life Tragedy.
1t is Il whole life tragedy. flashe,
| In tense colors on Il canvas. SO il
| The Blast Furnace" in the book
"LivelihOod.' there is the revelation o
Il boys coming to himself under tn
shock of his fathers death and tn
burden of the support of the famil
falling upon him. suddenly he under
stands things he never understood be
fore:
And then. his mother " but h
must not let
His mind run on his mother now. An
He'd often thought his father slu,
and grim.
He understood now. It was not 70
His son. to breathe IA word to her whe
Her husband, had borne with her pa
ticntly
Through all those years. Ay, now h
understood
Shed said,
His mothcr'd said, he shouldn't TAX
his shift
Before the undertakcTd been to Ii
, Twas scarcely decent. That was VIII;
Il she said
, Him working, and his father lyin
dead
) And hardly cold
8 And she. to talk to him,
' His son. of decency. there, with tn,
T. grim
! Half smile still on her husbands CO
white facet"
/, War Poems.
al Mr.. Gibson's war poems In the vo
q ume. Battle" have the same chara
teristics Of simple realism. Here is
. typical one on THE Bayonet:"
This bloody steel