Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-03-09
NEW POETRY OF
THE NEW CENTURY
Wilfrid Wilson Gibson Reflects
the Sociological Spirit of
His Times

WHO is to take the place OF the Ten.
nysoRs and Brownings and Swinburnes
of the last generation" is a question that
has been asked by many lover of
poetry with little hope of q satisfactory
answer. kipiing was very good 20 far
as he went. hut one seldom thinks OF
literature and Kipling's verse at the
same time, Tt has power. 1t Is In
splred by the breath of v,e,rous Ia'it-
ish imperialism And there Is music in
tt now and then. But Eiplng at his
best Is 30 far below Tcnnyson and
Browning and Swiuburnc that hc must
not be mentioned in the same breath
with them when speaking Of great Brit
lsh poets. Robert Bridges. the laurest &c,
Is admired By the dilcttHnte, hut 10 one
else reads him, 1t IL doubtful IL there
arc hundred persons in all America
who can repeat a line that he ever wrote.
Yet poet has arisen who may in
time become a worthy successor of the
mighty dead Ills name Is Wilfrid VIII
son Gibson. and he was born in lIexam,
Northumberland. England. In 1878, and
is consequently tEirty-ivc years Old lie
has published seven or eight little vol
uues Of verge. tho first In 1907, when
he was twpnty-nine. These volumes have
rc,putiy been combined into one under
'he tile cf "CoileSged Poems. 1904
1911" which ie now offered TO the pub
lie interested in verse. II goes with
out saying that the later poems are far
superior in poetic quality and In insight
to the earlier ones. If he Improves for
the next ten years as he has for the last
decade. his place will he secure
Bu; whoever expects TO ilnd a likeness
to the older poets in him viii be dis
appointed. lie Is intellectually product
OF the twentieth century. century In
which the old theories Of the advantages
Of caste and social privilege are being
disputed and the problems Of the poor
and dcsplscd are receiving greater Con-
ylderatio than in any previous period.
II is n time OF social revolution. Mr.,
Gibson has considered the lot Of the hith-
erto urccnsldcrel. His methods are
those Of the rsalist. Instead of gen
craliaiug he studies particular cases,
the lot Cf the worl;.ng man In the little
hamlet Who has to struggle FOR his daily
bread the fate of the wife whose Nus-
band has little tenderness because The
hardness OF his lot callouscR his soul as
we'll as his hands. tho mar'yrdom of the
seamstress in London who longa for the
rural scenea which she left IN her youth
His verse Il suggestive Of the fiction OF
the RUSSIAN NpNtliSVf Ii ltS searching
out Cor the sad oppression Of the fate
which uvcrComes 50 many in their strug-
XII, to keep body and soul together Aud
Il particulari2e instead Of gencYal,zcs.
There is none of the dreamy, academic
stuff that sometimes passes MS poetry,
but it all deals with life Very close at
hand His war verse Is not highralutiu'
nonsense about facing the cannon and
dashing to victory, but Is more like
stephen Cranes FED Badge Of Cour-
age" compressed into II dozen lines, Here
is II hit which enters into the heart Of
the civilian turned soldier:
They ask m" wh"rr rye Boo.
Nnd what fvo done ana s"'V.
But what can repl"
Who know II wasn't 7,
nut som" one Just Ike n1".
who wont across the s'H
Md with nv head ana hariI
Killed men in foreign lands
though ! must bear the blJW,
because he bore my name.
Here Is another. Il r"ycric Of man
In the trenches:
Tonight they're siltiug by the r",t
Talking Of me. I know.
Grandfat her Ia the inKie.s-al
Mother and Meg and .U.
fosl q anddnn pun Of heat
THAT sets my ears agloH,
tud smell the roek of burning I..I
Across the Belgian snow.
, Verso Of n different quality appears