Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-04-20

UOn.
Yes. ! know" Doctor McFabre
said, but am afraid that her stand
ards and mine differ"
Nou must grant, DOCTOR that he
has some power if he produced on
you the impression you have de-
scribed," said I. "No man without abll-
ity can move his reader"
But | don't want to be moved that
way" he insisted.
In spite Of the doctors prejudice"
said |, I'VE must admit that Masters
is great poet. If he had written
nothing but Widow La Rue which
appears in his latest volume Toward
the Gulf he would have won distinc-
ton That to my mind is a very great
poem. There is beauty in it and there
is grim tragedy. It is an exhibition
Of the fecundity of evil and the work.
ing Of the immutable moral forces.
But there is no preaching. Masters
| simply tells his story and stops. This
is art. The poem is by all odds the
best in the book. There are few
greater ones Of the kind in the
language"
Let me read it," said the doctor.
and picked the volume up from the
table
81 wish that he had left out some
HF ln Al,
went on while the clergyman was
reading. There is Doctor Scudder's
Clinical Lecture for example, which
is a study in hereditary insanity with
such unpoetical lines as these:
Then here's another matter. Parents
may
Have, normal nervous systems. yet pro-
duCp
Children, of abnormal nerves and
minds
Caused by unsuitable sexuol germs
| could get along without all Of that
sort Of stuff. Yet I must admit that
it is part Of the message which Masters
has set out to delivery He is study
ing the development Of society on the
theory that sex is at the base of it,
and he chooses examples of abnormal
, manifestations of sex. He might say
that many of them are normal, and
seem otherwise only because of an
artificial social organization. But the
/ instinct of the race would be against
him. His new book will not be so
popular as the Spoon River Antho-
logy,' for the reason that its general
level of interest is not sustained. Each
poem in the anthology was clear
cut gem His tool slipped in fashion
ing some of the new poems"
That is great" Doctor McFabre
remarked with II deep indrawing of
the breath as he finished widow La
! Rue"
"Hes, as poetry it is far greater
than anything that is contained in
John OXenhams new book" said l..
but probably ten copies of OXenham
will be sold to one of Masters's. Oxen
| ham is one of the marvels of modern
literature. He is an Englishman, who
! published his first volume in 1913.
| The publishers consented reluctantly
to issue it. Yet 22S,OOO copies Of it
have been sold TO date. 1t was Bees
in Amber More than 200, 900 copies
| Of Alls Well another volume, have
| been sold, and purchasers have bought
| 10000 copies of The Kings High
way The new volume, The Fiery
Cross will sell as well as any of
them, if l am not mistaken. Can you
tell me of any other poet so popular
that within five years there has been
a demand for $4,000 copies of three
volumes of his verse? l don't know
of any"
"Why does 1t SELF" owen asked
There is no mystery about it," said
/ l. "OXenham does not write above
the heads of the average man and
| woman. He has no poetic theory to
| put over. lie is not an imagist or a
! symbolist, but n plain man moved by
! the same things that move you and
me. lie has religious faith and con.
fidence in the overruling goodness of
God. And he happens to have writ
ten when the English-speaking peoples
were ready for this sort of thing. The
death. 1t has renewed the religious
life where it was withered and dying.
There is a feeling that God will not
let unrighteousness triumph and that
He will not leave the widowed and the
bereaved uncontrolled. OXenham has
written words of hope and consolation
that have soothed and cheered and
made life possible to those whose sons