The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-05-25
Verse That Has Its
Roots in the War
By CONSTANCE MURRAY GREENE


John LANE COMPANY publishes a
y second volume Of poems by f. A.
Macintosh of the Seaforth Highlanders,
whose first book, A Highland Regiment,
brought him prominently before the pub
lie. This collection, which includes n
group of prose selections and brief
memoirs by John Murray and Coningsby
Dawson, has been named War, the Liber-
ator, for its first and finest poem.
Lieut.. Macintosh was killed in action
in November, 1917, near Fontaine-Notre
Dame, in his twenty-fOurth year. 1t was
the war that gave him voice, although he
had been something of poet in light
way for a number of years. my pur-
pose is not to write of him critically" Mr..
Dawson says in his memoir; "he interests
me solely as a soldier who has managed
to get said in a few words some of the
poignant things that we have all felt"
Every one who reads his poems must share
this feeling, that the strength and SINGER
ity of what he has to say prohibits criti-
cism. The closing lines Of the first stanza
of War, the Liberdtor are illustrative of
this:
deaths fearful thing to you, terrible
in suddenness,
Lips that will not laugh again, tongues
that will not sing;
You that have not ever seen their sudden
life of happiness,
The moment they looked down on death,
a cowed and beaten thing"
There is a group of gay parodies and
songs and. three magnifcently simple and
yet dramatic sketches written in the
trenches, the last unfinished at the time of
his death. In leaving this gallant hearted
young poet it seems fitting to quote his
own words concerning his fallen com
rades,
"Say what life would theirs have been,
that it should make you weep for
them,
A small gray world imprisoning the wings
of their desiref'
Irene Rutherford McLeod's Before
DdDn includes many poems inspired by
the war and bears the proof in almost
every line of what the war can do for a
poet in the way of general development.
She has published two books of verse
within the past few years, Songs to Saue
a Soul and Suords for Life. neither Of
which can be said to have offered very
much of anything except promise. Be-
fore Ddwn, however, is a real achieve
ment, and while the war is surely respon-
sible In large measure for the rapid
growth of her work it is perhaps unfair
to lay too much stress on its influence.
After all, who is able to analyze the fluctu-
atoms Of poet7
There are some poets, a good many,
alas, whose portraits should never attend
their poems; but Miss Mcleod is most
emphatieally not one of them. The little
portrait which her publishers have been
good enough to place on the jacket of her
book is charming and artistic thing, and
it shows her youth to those who have not
already guessed it. 1t is only in the case
of very young poet that a second or
third book is apt to outreach first, as
this surely does outreaeh Songs to Sare
a Soul Miss Mcleod has become so much
more vital that it is difficult to associate
her with her earlier songs. Her chief
fault now is too lavish use of words
You feel that almost all of the poems
would bear "boiling down." This fact
makes it hard to quote from them briefly
without unfairness, which We hope has