New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-09-22
Songs in Many Keys
Two Recent Volumes Of Verse
from Sir William Watson

/ RErRoGRESsIoN AND OTHER POEMS. BY WI
| lam Watson. emo. 10. IS TIE Johh Lane '''"
VI" Man VINO SAW AND oTHER roEMs
| ARISING OFT OF 1Ht WAX by "uI''"
/ Watson Emo. ~. 20. Harper BROS.
n we were inclined to be cynical or
sarcastic or ironical or any OF those un-
pleasant things which literary critics s
/ since the early days OF The Quar'eIIS
! bot,o 50 scrupulously avoided being, we
wight comment upon the suppositltious
/ difference between the rhythmical OF
/ ferinps Of Mr.. william Watson IN the
/ former and of Sir William watson IN
/ ,bo latter OF these two thin volumes
/ But. come TO think of it, that wouid De
! fallacious. since most n not all OF ths
contents OF the latter we're composer
/ before the poet received the accolaue'
/ The truer comment is upon the amaLlns
unevenness Of quality in both thesc
volumes. orb
Coming from the author OF nc
! purple Fast" the former OF the TWO
might be regarded as pathetica!iy wei
named For much of IL is filled WIN
trite and ouerulous Trades against the
now meets and poetry, the new crltles'
and pretty much everything new Even
! the title-pocm begins thus badly
our DAUGHTERS flower in vernal grace
! In strength our striplnCs wax apace'
! Our cities teen: our commerce r'ue'
! Sovereign upon the fawnlng tdeS'
/ That will do. for that. Few readers
will 90 far beyond daughters hover,
ing" such misty nothingness as NeEnaI
/ grace "waxing apace" Lshades OF Ihe
J ancient great ones who hrst usen ~ ,,
"cities teeming" and "fawnlng tlues.
And. quite inconsequentially, MT wat
son, writing so recently, seems W ue
forgetting something in those last TWO
lines-the U-boats! However such
echoes of poet, formerly, at tin !L;r
exact, aphoristic and reireShlng' as '"''
Characterization of Dryden's verse
The metal Of his iron line
sneak eloouently, even If so very IN
frequently. "A June-Hearted Keats IS
another So also is Burns as the nus
bandman of heaven"
Tndoubtedly the best things IN the
volume are two little epigrams ana
three not very long poems, nat
Science Says TO Truth" ON Caroiihe
Poet" and Thomas Hood" ending:
He saw wan Woman toll with fami'hed
He saw her bound, and strove to sing her
free. -, nil, ,
He saw her falrn; and wrote The Bridge Of
And on il crossed to Immortality.
That last line is turned with the mas
tow of a Shakespeare, But II is but
sircle line. Here is a two-llne poem
"On a Peopie's Poet"-what an epltaph'
in these days of Interpretation, Tor
Longfellowl
Ihrcadbare his songs seem now to Ie'ered
They we're worn threadbsre next the hearts
Of men.
con n Caroline Poet" is so well
turned. too. as. perhaps, like the one
lust quoted, to have permanency hidden
in its simplicity. II is wise. lyricaI'
ouotable-and only two fouT-llhe
stanzas in length. But we Ike vale
dictorv" even better. This little qua
train-poem, so wise, so whimsical, so
packed with poetry!
Adieu. gray hamlet hall and cot,
And iyied steepel
You would be such a pleasant spot
But for the people.
Those few are about all there are TO
the book; yet do they not redeem all
the good paper that went into the resi-
OF IL?
In "The Man Who Saw" we find the
same inequalities, though on the who're
The standard is considerably higher;
doubtless because Of the more inspiring
therea. The nineteen Sonnets reveal
roreummate craftsmanship and much Of
that "grard STYLE" of which Arnold
wrote That on America, calling heI
10 forsake neutrality, is not after all SC
ou+ Of time as some critics have mag
;red ks for that on Belgium
q little ship among the Dreadnoughts vast
Where Is the Dreadnought that - great a.
thou =
and that on King Albert
Receive the homage that freeman pay.
TO Kinrhood towering out OF Manhooc
broad
we must account them worthy Of TIL:
singer at his earlier best.
Two Of the longer or less short poems
command, however, most attention
One is the title-poem. "The Man Who
Saw" is. of course, David Lloyd George
when
Hate shall reel hack from these embattleC
walls,
And having spent 30 long, its hurting bolt!
With such poor thrift, shall stand before th'
bankrupt Of thunder-then indeed shall
Time
ADJ vet another name n those the worlc
Salltcs with an obeisance Of the soul
The name Of him. the man Of Celtic blood
Whom Powers Unknown, in divine caprice
Chrse and die make their instrument
vhcrewitn
TO save the Saxon: the man all eye ans
hand.
The man who saw, and grasped. and gripped
and held.
The other is that astounding Flu.
neral March of Hohenzollern,' now
renamed "The Kaiser's DIrge,' and
shon Of most of its grcwsome eXtraya
gsnces. In It's new form 1t is not un.
worthy of the writer OF abdul the
Damned as witness,
Father Of Lies,
Receive thy son
Whatever its merits or dement's, this
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