New-York tribune., 1920-05-30
N "LANCELoT," his latest nara
tive-poem, Edwin Arlington Robin
aon ba. .ccA.,;r.J A. 4.s -

son has symbolized the trend Of
the times, as he did previously In
Merlin" Both written in somewhat
tho same vein, "Lancelot," published by
Thomas Seltzsr, may be considered the
greater by reason Of sharper eharac-
ter deltneation and lines which rise
from tho standpoint of poetic truth
above anything the poet has done.
Character delineatlon in q poem may
we'll be considered the hardest feat
outside Of the actual work of creation
man undergoes in the writing Of tie
poem itself. In "Lancelot" Robinson
has burst tho bounds Of poetry. They
are no longer able to hold him. In "The
Town Down the River" one was able
to sense here and there a striving on
tho part Of his genius for poetic Of
fects. In "The Children Of the Night"
bits Of his own personal suffering were
revealed hero and there in some Of the
sonnets. In "Tho Man Against the
Sky" no rhymed a. concessions; in
"Lancelot" and merlin" he no longer
comedies. In "Larcelot" more than in
merlin" or Captain Craig" he borders
upon the broad confines of the novel.
What poetic effects he achieves il
this latest poem of his are wholly un-
conscious and result from a quest Of
truth rather than an out-and-out wooiny
OF beautiful lines. BE Is q sesker after
truth, and beauty, like the proverbial
woman, comes running after him to
givs him moro than he seems really
asking Of her.
Curiously, lines Of merlin" and
"Lancelct," If spoken upon the stare,
would be found to contain the clements
OF pure drama. There is more Of the
seer, tho prophet, the apostle in
| 'Lahcelot" and Merlin" than the poet
the novelist. or playwright. Although
symbolizing in his versions Of the Ar
thurian legends the revolts and emo
tlons in men and women of to-day, he
presents his ideas to US in a form
which may be termed Elizabethan. In
no serious way DEPRESSING from the
legend as it WAS frst conceived and
later presented in narrative poetry by
Tennyson, Robinson has contributed a
robust philosophy and psychology hith-
erto unexpressed in his earlier work
and totally ignored by the poet laure-
ate of England
The lifting strain Of poetry is brought
the more vividly into relief against q
more somber background Of reality
1t IS the Light of the God of Things
as They Are Now that burns for Lance
lot in the poem Of Robinson. who goes
on accurately to show, also, that it was
this very Light Of present-day real
en- creeping about the sacred foliages
Of the old oaks fringing Arthurs
castle, instead Of the light from the
Holy Grail, that holds Lanceot for =
time to dream Of earthly things; il
burns his heart out while beckoning to
him to follow on out Of time, out of
space; while the soul Of his souls FAR
quest rides on before him in the person
Of young Galahad, who never drank
from reality, as Lancelot and Merlin
drank "over cups Of gold" and who
never was made to suffer as they sut-
fered seeing him go and unable to fol
low. While the philosopher in Merlin
rebelled and the Romanticist in Lance
lot waited, Galahad follows on after
that last glorious retinue Of the
apostles.
Lancelot sees the Light that Galahad
followed burn and break into the ashes
Of unshaken reality, the Goals Of which
make an indelible impression in the
Robinsonian manuscript before they
expire into an ash whittier than the
fame which beckoned Galahad away.
Tho names of Modred, Bedivere and