Evening star., 1924-10-23

This. the first in a series Of reviews
OF old books, has for its subject the
poems of William Cullen Bryant.
Some weeks ago in this column ap-
peared an estimate Of one of the
latest books Of poems, THE Janitors
Boy" by Nathalia Crane, eleven
year-old Brooklyn schoolgirl.
1t Is fitting. therefore, that such a
series should begin with a. volume
completed many years ago-a book
of poems that has become so stand
ard that probably very few read 1t
any more.
The word review" 1t seems to me,
Is somewhat OF misnomer when
applied to new book, as the word
means to view again, to look back on
A review Is a second review Of a
book. meaning by inference a care
full examination.
The only books that really can be
reviewed. therefore, are the old books,
the works one can look back on, the
DOCKS that have stood the test of
time and are still In print after their
authors are gone.
Reviews of new books are so many
and generally mean so HttIe-that
1t ought to prove refreshing to re-
view some of the old books; to give
them a second View, as 1t were; to
recall them to general attention.
The so-called new poetry" made
quite splash few years ago, but
the ripples are slowly subsIding now.
AS the waves of interest created by
Amy Lowell and the other writer's of
the so-called verse libre" tend to
natten out into their proper pro-
portion they leave, standing I'D as
Formerly, the great poets of old
Tennyson, Keats, Shelley, Longfellow,
Pope, Poe and Bryant
In recent years there has grown up
school of criticism composed of
men whom call the sophisticates-
those to whom the old is crude and
unworthy of attention.
If thing is old, IL is a bromide
If poet has written a great, simple
thing, 1T Is too childish If a poem
has brought tears to the eyes Of de-
cent, right-thinking men and women.
then 1t Is something to be ashamed of.
80 We have the sneerers in litera-
ture, 10 whom Longfellow's psalm of
Life" Is joke, fit only to be recited
by schoolboys, and Tennyson's Gross
ing the Bar" an elemental lyric, per-
maps allowable at funeral to soothe
the distress OF the bereaved.
Thank heaven, the majority of us
DO not belong to this nice, critical
band! For time they almost made
US ashamed of our own opinions.
hurting their skeptic's ban at every
thing that rhymed.
We are bolder now, since we have
decided that George F. Babbitt was
not such bad chap. after all, and
that Main street could be great deal
worse.
Boldly, before all the world, we hold
up this valume of 1868 pages, labeled
"Bryant's Poems" and declare:
Behold, here some good stuff"
William Cullen Bryant was one of
the heroic figures of American Jour-
nalism. the author of some of the
greatest blank verse in existence, and
writer OF two of the finest lyrics in
all English poetry.
He is generally pictured as an old
man with flowing white beard, a cross
between Socrates and a Roman sena-
tor, when. 8 a matter of fact, he was
a tremendously virile man all his life.
being a lover Of the outdoors. as Is
shown in his poetry.
He was one of the original "physi-
cal culturists" Of America He com
monty walked several miles to his
newspaper office In New York, and
often took there a. series OF setting
up" exercises. He was no ladylike
poet, but real herman, as the phrase
is-something that ought to be kept
in mind by his detractors
Take ITO a Waterfowl" Tennyson
might have composed it-only he
didn't. Bryant did.
Whittier. midst falling dew.
While glow the heavens with the last steps of
day, "
Far. through their rosy depth. dost thou pur-
Thy solitary way?