New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1921-07-03
New Fiction for Varied Tastes Dante and Keats Annversa
Anniversary Of Dante and Keats #
Honored by New Editions Of Poets
Stately Measures of the Great Florentine and
Singing Lines of London Poet
in Memorial Volumes

KEATS. With notes by Il. Buxton For
man. Published by Oxford University
Press. si.TB.
KEATS. AN ANTHOLOGY. Published ty
Moffat Yard and Co. $3.50.
DANTE Translated by Henry Francis
Cary. Published by oxford University
Press $1.7B.
n Ohm KEATS died on February %,
1921. Any comment on his
/. growth in fame and the present
position he holds in British let
ters and in the field of the worlds su-
preme poets would be mere repetition
Of laudations. No nobler method Of hon
oring man who has sung well can be
devised than Offering to the public the
whole bulk Of his work in attractive
form, with emendations, notes and COL
lateral material Of value for the study
Of text and the gaining Of close &C.
quaintance with the creative mind Of
the poet. Two recent books in the area
of Keatsiana are now before US: vol
ume Of his poems, complete and rich in
notes, and an anthology which is in
effect an arrangement Of poems in new
and instructive order, one intended to
give glimpse Of the orderly Develop
ment Of Keats's power as a poet to an
almost perfectly pure diction and great
beauty in adornment by phrases opu-
lent in color.
In tho first Of these two books there
is rare completeness Of annexation in
connection with such poems as "Lamia, {"
"The Eve Of st. Agnes" "The Ode to q
Nightingale" Isabella" and "Hyper-
ion," the lower rungs Of the singers
poetic ladder. We quote passage from
Forman's Introduction: "It seems to me
that in an edition Of Keats intended to
meet q popular demand among the edu-
Gated classes. an attempt should be made
to record precisely how and in what
forms the text has come through the
nineteenth century and reached his low
ers and admirers in the twentieth" In
obedience to this idea in preparation Of
contents this edition contains an ex-
tremely valuable section of over fifty
pages on the growth of.each Of num-
Der Of typical poems to final form, with
an accompanying wealth Of enlighten-
ing comment.
One Is somewhat surprised on opening
Keats: An Anthology to find the famous
sonnet, bright STAR" leading off in the
procession Of poems included. Usually
it is placed at the end of volumes Of
the poets works. This collection
has another surprise in store in its
placing "Much Have I Travelled in the
Realms of Gold" at the end. AS in a
recent edition Of the poems Of Words
worth, there is in this volume control
ling and wise purpose at work, the as
sembling. not Of all poems written by
John Keats, but Of a number of essen
TALLY interpretative ones, that 8 reader
may obtain view of stages Of develop
nent. Keats never YVES child picking at
tuneful strings. He came to his Lutte
full-dedged with divine abilities. But
there is a graduation in his advance
to his final ground Of Greek loneliness
and English setting and, by printing
number Of his best loved poems In
an order that makes Of them mile
posts along lyric journey we are able
to follow the singers fight from "beauty
made half-articulate to beauty in ex-
celsis." This admirable treasury of the
best things John Keats wrote, set down
in an order that gives the reader an
easily won comprehension of the poets
expansion to the full bloom Of perfec-
ton, is q welcome addition to our
shelves Of British poets.
Dante died at Ravenna in July, 1921.
And so this year rounds out six CEN
turtles since Guido performed royal OBJ
sequies in his honor. When the great
Italian was laid away in the soil of his
Italy, John Cover was singing his first
notes in the arms Of his mother in
England, and Chaucer was to wait eight
years before his eyes could open on
English skies, If we can imagine him a
mere promise in the hazy offing Of pos