Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1919-01-12
Reviews of New Books

CHE BETROTHAL, A Sequel TO ~The
nlue Dtrd." BY Maurice Maeter.
linck, author Of 1.-THE Blue Bird
etc. Translated by Alexander TEX
Mead & Co. Washington: Bren-
tanos.
" HIS five-act fairy play makes
use of much of the setting
that surrounds ''The Blue
Bird" It promises. therefore.
TO be beautiful thing to see the
boy. Tyltyl1one of the little children
of the earlier play-has here reached
youth and the time for love. The
choosing Of his mate is the business
of the drama in hand. And here Maet-
erlinck, as n matter of. course for
Materlinck, leaves the obvious and
material plane of existence from
which folks suppose. mistakenly, that
they make their choices and rejec-
tions. In great beauty of setting
and action the ancestors of Tyltyl
assemble in solemn conclaVe to choose
his mate through the strange and po-
tent blood diffusions and promptings
of all the contributing centuries be-
hind him. And before him his I'M
born children. future generations of
them, assemble to choose from the
band of loving and beloved maidens
who wait for TyItyl the one that is
really their mother. Very beautiful,
very unreal and very tormenting with
its implications OF a greater reality
than that which stands out as the
acknowledged and accepted reality of
things In this material world.
O,uE POEMS Avn PLAYS oI rnr.S
MASIsFIELD. New York: The Mac
milan Company.
The student and the critic will
belize upon this volume of Masefield's
collected poems as material by which
they may make their additions and
subtractions and final balances of
Masef1eld, as poet or no poet, setting
him, finally, in the literary niche to
which their expert analyses have led
him. But the rest of the reading
world, those that are left after the
experts in literary appraisals have
betaken themselves to their corners,
will be left in full and happy pos
session of body of poetry that for
the first time in several centuries
through his heart. and burst from his
lips in an involuntary impulse to
hear these singing cadences with his
own ears. A great story teller and
true poet have come together here,
The effect is tremendous. These
stories. moreover. are on themes that.
in the main. other poets have not
found to be matters for singing. Poor
folks, rough folks. plain folks
generally, are come together here.
Simple unromantic tragedies stand
stark before one. Stuff that is count
cd common. sordid, deadly prosaic.
steps into rhythmic measures here:
Masefleld, again unlike the usual
poet. makes very little of his own
insides-very little Of what he feels,
or Of why he feels 1t, or thinks he
feels 1t. He is concerned chiefly in
telling story about somebody else.
And he tells this story with such
sympathy and comprehension, with
such delicacy and tenderness that one
reads for the story first. just happily
conscious down somewhere within
him of the satisfying measure to
which the story itself is set. One
reads over and over, coming back
for very special re-reading of "The
Widow in the Bye Street" This
volume, containing sonnets, miscel-
1aneous poems, salt Water BALLADS
as well as the long and more familiar
story poems by this writer, Is a thing
for the enrichment of ones reading
hours.
THE ADVANCE OF ENGLISH POET
/ TURY. BY William Lyon Phelps,
! author of "The Advance of the
+ English Novel," etc. New York:
| Dodd, Mead g. Co.
One realizes. In very general
way, that, for the past ten years or
SO, poetry has been looking up. More
OF 1t is printed currently; young
poets are appearing under the
courtesy of introductions and some
considerable subsequent attention;
the principles of poetry are receiv-
ing renewed consideration; rebels in
the art are making themselves heard,
and new schools are setting them
selves off against the established ten
cts of poetic production. One senses
much Of this disturbance. vaguely.
And he wishes that there was at hand
some means by which he might
gather into an Ineligible scheme the
outlines of this revival of interest in
the subject. And here at hand is
exactly what he has been seeking.
IN about dozen essays William Lyon
Phelps gives the general direction
and scope Of the new poetry through
a concrete study of the work and
the poetic motive OF the most serious
and the most considerable of these