New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-02-24
TALES IN VERSE

woes of the poet nor the equally well
known woes of the world. Nor does
it. unable to sing, preach. To the
vision of the poet Mr.. Gibson adds the
attitude of the story writer. Having
unusual powers of observation, me
sense of balance, Of proportion o.
what TO omit, and enough OF the true
nrose fctionist's artistic instinct
never TO allow himself to fall lhto
sentimentality, didacticism, or lhoi-
fensive cynicism, possessing too much
of that artistic instinct ralher un
nsual TO narrative and dramatic poels
which keeps the poet safe from poth
= cold aloofness from his characters
a,d too great a thrusting of ms own
nersonalitv into their individual llVes'
J tbis poet and tale teller watches inc
{ l;ves If so-called common men uhIoie
/ and lots down the essential 1acts Gl
/ their individual eXistences, artisticailS
/ and of necessity adding TO his par
/ ticular "report" such glimpses as ne
/ ord nerhaps no one else is permitted
IN see glimpses his own soul, OF
course. engenders. Ii Wilfred wilson
Gibson's soul casts some slight ga,
mour. some friendly and passionate
| coax of beauty about the common
evervdav fellows he and we meet III
! our everyday world. that gives no
Grounds for quarrel. Life, we an
/ Inow. sometimes welcomes a ilttie
colorinc by the soul, to keep the oody
/ willing and able to go on WIN "'
especial appointed tasks.
Broadly speaking, in "Llyeilnoou
twenty dramatic reveries' we ge.
/ twenty straightforward tales III the
great adventure of earning the wheIe-
! withal for ourselves and those ue
! pendent upon US to live. For thesI
! lives in this English community anu an.
our own lives are really pract'o"lty
/ the same. And the pride IN us an
] gladly enough takes unto itseIl coni-
nany with the heroic. So, IN showing
ppn;to nnobtrusiyely the innate hero
! ism in the various examples OF hu-
manitv given in his book. Mr.. Gibson
;s merely appealing to the ldeallstie
eomewhere in us all, going around
among us making us acquainted win
first one and then another brother-h-
! humanity. And we find these new ac-
' ouaintances ennobling and pleasing
| Interesting" Miners and musical gen,
;uses brokers and farmers sons and
farmers daughters, hcrdsman ana
nIatclaver and soldier and doctor ana
| stoker. the soldiers wife working OUT
pickine strawberries, with chlldreh W
feed and maybe 10 raise, home-heeP-
| inc baby-feeding, watching, waiting
women, sentimental as life ana no
more so. old men, babes, and poet
! in tho upholstery business,-all en-
nobI;nc and pleasing. interesting.
| Added to these. the hills, skies, sea-
| birds. brook or two, flowers, the nv
j. dancing song for the cheering oil
,ired bodies, the pleasant connotatlohs
in a familiar sound, III an old Tree,
oven in a blast furnace or an uhiiheu
schoolroom. even in muddy poor u.
bav meadow and we have some OF
that that is poetic In the world OF
which Mr.. Gibson has caught geher-
Gus bit. As for the technique IN these
"reyeries," here is that best blnd OF
narrative technique which draws no
attention to itself, it is so nearly
what seems an inevitable bit Of lie
Simply, we enter at once INTO Ine
lives of some new acquaintance we
are coming to know; live keenly
through all these new acquaintance
brave, weak, conquerlng, unpreteho
ingly idealistic, suddenly hard oil
heart and as suddenly kindly again
feel; share with them their comics
sional moments, reminiscent or pre-
monitory, those moments too trying
10 remain alone in. lighting IN whole
eXistences in a fash land sometimes
burning them up; live along WIN
them through the fulfilling OF inc
hearts call or the severe, strengthen
ing demands of duty; emerge with
them chagtened, strengthened too
proud. As proud and boastful of this
new acquaintance in the highest and
hardest worked OF the animals, man
as if we had watched the same lone
fight in a lifelong friend across the
road we've always lived on More so
than if we'd watched the gallant
struggle in neighboring village!
While it is easy enough TO admit that
some of these twenty life-stories IN
livelihood" may be slight as stories
ordinary in the plot-valve, and a little
tenuous in the telling, none could
have been at all we'll spared. To-
gether thew blend into a very capable
honest, and satisfyingly beautiful plct-
ure of the varied, some more, some
less exciting, eXistences which unite
in making up an interesting and
rather representative community
life. The trapped boy, in THE Shaft.
/ thinking of supper, Of his pigeons, OF
his testing mother, forgetting death
for the moment. in the following remi-
niscence-how, before his mirror,
Held tie his neckerchlef
And shield call him her pigeon, Peter Prim
Preenlng himself, SHIELD say, to meet his
,rho,,rh ba,d M lass not hel A scarf well
tied,
No gaudy colours. Just red or yellow,
Was what he fancied. What harm If he
tried
TO keep himself respectable! A fellow
/ Though womenfolk might laugh ana
the fiddler in the vaudeville house, en-
during the crazy clowns. their crazy
Jokes, the crazy grinning teeth that
filled the whole huge theatre, his yourg
wife lately deceased, while
In and out
The hollow fiddle of his head the notes
Jingled and tangled;
/ the fifteen-year-old housework-girl. on
holiday at the beach, swinging,
swinging, at kind, generous. hard
working Dick Garland's expense,
swinging and swinging, not now
sweeping and scrubbing. moving chairs
and turning the parlour out" she
with Dick swinging and swinging
/ So high into the burning blue
! It seemed that they would swing right
| through
the city salesman. now between the