New-York tribune., 1922-05-14
The ounuay lr1bune's News and Reviews f Po1 :
The Enormous H.
By Louis kantor

but every now and then YOU coma ,,,,r
so iuSuriant an oasis OF language TIM,
its beauty quenches the almost o,a~
whelming thirst which the va,t do.o,+,
and their pyramids OF words reared Nv
Floyd Dells and Lee Wilson Dodds Gre
ate. There nre so many smazinc nov.
TRAITS in this book, too many ~ ho
mentioned individually. But when al
the others are eliminated there ;r
'Surpiicc' and Jean le Neere.
"Surplice'' who, being unspcakablv
lonely. enjoyed any and all insults rnr
the simple reason that they constituted
or at least implied, q recognition ~
his existence"
Take him" wrltos cur,,,.
dawn's soft squareness. scntIH ntuIy''s,nes n, r.
plcN cheWed cigarette ends from the,'.E ~ 10
nee! ngo! which, IL pear hiln. all nish,: retch
h'm an day and all days, roli.ctt,,r s", gee
S1sheu S,, ends and stufnng them Eent!E f1t"
smokes TRANQUILITY little spltntera Of eots l59
or IN the yard, speajsinc w. ""O" a.
ore stunning his soul" ~ ho
And Jean le Negre, the boautif,,,
black man who cannot read and ;x s,st
discovered by Cummings "porinc with
extraordinary intentness" at - .1.or
don Daily Mall" held upside down OK
claiming from time to time: "You DOM
say! Look, the King of England is sick
Some news. What? The Queen.
too? Great God, What's this, M,
father is dead, Oh, well. Tho war is
over. Good
Then follows, q tender, unsentimcn-
tai portrait OF the beauty Of this hl,c,-
chlid's soul, and we leave fee1irg os
him as Cummings docs:
Ard I think or Joan L. Nesr.
s,i.',e S9u are soinethins 70 dream over. Jean,
You so walking into my hsnd vo,, u,,, ni,ssS5
SuG"sA s,, Cn9co.a;e-c coiored thing in your
n;|', ,,'ol Sou nave ha6it OF holding s.x or
e.aHl pl"nIoAs tguar<is) (which You nre
a0eu' 10 throw away. and Inc ash de
yonl BODY is ike tho nosh o. a yery dosI al
cisHr. which / am stiN and always ou,et
~ smoking: always and still a,n :.
os!in@ It's Nery fragrant and Iemartablo
,ausctes. But doubt if ever am N'lGto onito
throuEA win YOU. II ever | Will toss vo,i
/ our or my heart INTO tho sawdust OF for
Ia guerre est huie. 9N
on yes. Jean; I do not forget. re-
laemnsr men. ,,.;, flenty the snow coming. the
snow snow WI thFow again e very bis and
and into the eyes Of you and mo watkins;
~lways wonderful!y up and down
s.r,4i,r.. Be rboyii kid, Nisser. win the
mind once or twice before I die (yo, know
why tust because the eyes OF me and YOU
VIII b. full OF Glrt some day). Quickly
take me- 40 INTO the bright child OF yorr
mind before we. both 20 suddenly au
feeD Take mo up (carefuiIy, s1P lIy" ss II T''i
were toy), play carefully With me- once
or twice, before I and YOU SO into great
JACK ro4es and ivory-(once or twice, Boy.
before We together go Wonderfully dow1,
the last Garl1ness)"
'T7IIS book will be found very ur-
l. pleasant by many. It is Fortnight
downright, arrant; it fumbles, needle
like, with threads of light through the
fog OF blindness which a war somehow
always manages, through regular and
Irregular agencies, to create Stencil
is one of the principal players in this
prose comedy. No, it is not pleasant
AS a visual picture 1t is rather dis
heartening.
well, then" it VIII be asked, it al
Ways is asked, what's the excuse for
such 4 book? Of what use is it?"
/ do not know. ] am not utiltarian.
and neither, l daresay, is Cummings.
One might az we'll ask what is the use
O. music, any art An artist does not
make useful things or things for which
there Is an excuse. An artist tries to
make q perfect thing; a sentence
which approaches the state CT music
which is diamond hard; precise. The
only excuse for created thing 20 an
artist is-beauty. How can any one ask
what excuse is there for such .
book i il contains q sentence like:
Tile tall. impossbly tall, inco,nparably
tall. city ahouilertnsiy upward iito hard
sunIi ieht leaned L little through the octaVeA
o. lie parallel edges. ieaningly STROBE up-
"ard intO arm, hard snowy sunlight the
noises cf american rearingly throbpet
With sr3ol - and llurrring dots which are
u -n and ~ hiCh are rolnen and Whlcf tTc
things new snd curious and hard ana
strange and vibrant and immense, itftng
with great onduloUs stride H-iAly into
/ Immortal sunlight. :"
Cummings was riding into the harbor
which j.; America