The sun., 1918-12-29
The Poets Are Heard:
"We Are Seven"
By CONSTANCE MURRAY GREENE

~ called his latest collection OF verse,
Young Adventure, name singuiarly well
suited to the vigur and freshness OF his
poetic gift. 1t contains some thirty or
more poems of a quality TO confirm the
respect in which the work of this young
poet is already held by those who have
followed it and to assure the less fortunate
of bright new star in our armament.
He writes of music. of ghosts in a lunatic
asylum, of the deep dreams of men and
bows and sometimes. and very beautifully,
of love. We learn how rain affects him
after vaudeville show,
"The storming, thrashing arrows Of the
RAIN
and in the closing line of this poem we
feel the characteristic tone of the book as
O whole,
81 stamped the ground in the strong JOY
of life"
Always we feel the youth of the poet,
though in no sense through immaturlty,
and when he becomes sad il IS a sadness
seen through the eyes of JOY. Lines from
The LOrer IN Hell are a good example of
his fine vigor and the freshness of which
we have spoken Here the lover is re-
garding his lady in Heaven:
"She is all peace, all quiet,
All passionate desires, the eloquent
thunder
OF new, glad suns, shouting aloud for JOY,
Over fresh worlds and clean, tramplIng
the air
Like STOPPING hawks. TO the long wind of
horns,
Flung from the bastiOns of eternity"
Tbs Drug Shop or Eadymion in Ed
monsieur. the initial poem In the book,
received the nineteenth award of the
Alb; IT Cook prize offered at Yale Uni
versity for the best unpublished verse. 1t
is a striking piece Of work, rich in imagi-
nation and color. Mr.. Benct combines
originality and distinction with regard for
form and rhythm There is strength and a
sureness of execution which lead us TO
stake high hopes for his future.
Maurice Hewlett in TIE Village ITVe'S
Lament. gives us his own and a supposed
village wifes opinions Of aggressive war.
They are what she undoubtedly feels but
could never in five worlds express. Mr.
H"w!ett's note which follows the poem is
immensely interesting. He writes: IA
human natG-e still actually is no league
of nations conceivable TO us will be able
TO save us from war. Rend your hearts
and not your ornaments. Let us learn
10 look war in the face and while the
blood is cold, so that we may know what
We are meaning to do"
Mr. Hewlett has not hampered himself
undulv regarding accuracy of rhyme and
metre although the form is conventional
but he has given us a strong and vita
thing. He is never as true poet when h'
is writing actual verse as when he is writ
ing prose We quote one or the closing
stanZas:
"If kings are so, then let all go
Let my dear love east down
His lovely life, so we lay low
The last 10 wear crown.
I'll look upon the steadfast stars,
Patient and true and wise,
And read in them the end of wars,
As in my dead loves eyes"
Willard Wattles, as one may gathn
from his title, Lanterns in Geth>emdRe
draws the inspiration for his poems from
Scriptual themes He loves TO linger unde
the sacred olives and expresses and Oftcl
his dreams and visions there are genuincl.
poetic In his preface, which Is writer
from Camp Funston, Kansas, he llken
himself TO a reporter whose material la
come from the New Testament and tn
lives of his friends and parents. IL
method has been TO search hackwar
along the trail of memories for the liNIn