New-York tribune., 1918-10-26
Current Verse
Verhaeren, Stella Benson, Don
Seitz, O'NeiI

THE EVENING HOURS. BY Emile verhaeren
TTanslated IRA by Charles r. Murphy. l2no. pp. a.
ihe John Lane Company.
The mellow, tender art of Verhaeren
shows to exceptional advantage in these
poems of sunset, winter and death:
~ My garden Is that now forlornly gricycs.
Oh the last perfumes angudly eShaed led
hy late Hover IN tho lingering leaves
1t is a beautiful and loved old aoe
mat is hymned. Even the sun, that
favorlte god of youth, is greeted as a
TREND and intimate of the last hours
to come Passion has gone, but warmth
ana tenderness remain. The tragedy
OF war leaves no mark, nor Belgium
wrecked and dying. 1t is a soul apart
and cloistered in happy home and
garden that sings.
The translation is excellent. The
subtle monotony of the French, pecul
larly welded to the themes, cannot be
reproduced IN our more DOWNRIGHT
tongue. But much of the charm and
all OF the thought are accurately trans
ported.
TWENTY. BY Stella Benson l2mo. %. 60 The
Macmillan Company. ''' W. A"0
Ihere is no mistaking the person.
allty OF Miss Benson. Her work has a
wang all Its own, and that is surely
somethlng among SO many English
rnymesters plucking their lutes in the
fresh On our admirably useful Ameri
can sense of the word), little fond of
snocklng, and very. very crisp and can
dld. She irritates some of the sturdv
pompous critics to the pitch of Win.
peration-w which is ridiculous - for
Miss Benson makes no try for the
grand attack, and it should be impos-
Slote 10 turn heavy guns upon her.
Deit' Intelligent and mystical, she has
turned out thin volume of verses far
oeI'er with the doing than many a fat
opinion of "Words":
Oh. words OH words and shall Won r,,,a
Tis. Ths woria! 9ai What is It but tho tongue
80 that his best songs go unsung
30 that MS dreams are sent to school
And all die young?
There The pass the TRAVELLING dreams. and these
NY soul adores,-my words condemn
On. | would fall upon my knees
10 KISS their golden garments hem
Yet words do lie in walt to seize
And murder them
SHlsn5 TSo situss ts' of swpsns ms stars shall plumb
Ot pluined winds like huntsmen come
10 70 hunt. hunt With dreams the restless birds
Tonight the moon shall strike you dumb
oh' words. oh words.
FAM VOICES. BY Don c. Setz. lomo. pp. 7,
We do not know just where NJ,
; Seltz's Spoon River is located, but h
knows 1t we'll, and has put an unusual
~ sharp set of snapshots of it in thi
little volume. Some of the verse
the regulation railroad tie produc
, Some of it what the jealous poets in
. sslst upon calling spaced prose-as, fo
| instance, "Old Bill Bryan:
tst TO hear him bellerin' away
Al the Fair grounds
Onct q year.
: First about silver an gold
sixteen To one
i Without tellln' Us
HOW 10 git any
or it.
Mr.. Seitz writes more warmly c
| Hard Cider and Sucking Pigs. Kee
| observation shows throughout an
| much admirable philosophy The Mic
| die West is indicated at times: We
| surely what but New England. an
| Northern New England, at that, coul
| utter the classic words upon 9TH
| Mortgage":
Ust to say
They hain't
No cupuo
Nor no mortgage
On my housel"
/ GARNET OF JADE. By David ONeil I'm
pp 100. The -Four Seas Company.
/ These unpretentious little pages hay
vigor and wisdom that set them in
place apart among the verse libre ,
the day. Mr. O'Neil has taken II
J West to the core of his being; and I