Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-06-29
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
/. c. NJ.

THE BOOK OF EARTH. Alfred
Noyes. Frederick A. Stokes Co.
Under common judgment the poet
as producer foots the list of literary
purveyors. Above him. in any sort
OF general acceptance, rank writer's
Of every other class. of every degree
OF competence-novelist playwright,
historian, biographer, essayist. BY
way of his own output the poet never
by any chance comes within halling
distance of the now familiar best
seller. Before the campaign for such
popular election is even under way
the poet Is already showed under In
a hopeless foregone defeat. Passing
him gayly and triumphantly in this
contest Is the most hectic and maud
lin of melodramas. Far ahead OF him
in the race are mystery tales riddled
with Inconsistencies and slack In
vention, whose secrets, avowedly I'M
fashionable in depth, stand screaming
at the roadside like "a huckster with
his truck. Mediocre records OF travel
outstrip in public esteem poems and
songs, such as an angelic host might
have composed. So in every field
of writing the poem stands last IN
any largely diffused measure OF &C
ceptance. So among writer's OF every
class the poet stands least In general
favor.
Regret It though one may. the fact
stands that poetry is q literary form
OF scant and exclusive appeal. A spe-
cious popularity may be claimed for
it now and then by advocates who
count the quality Of readers rather
than their numbers. The latter,
nevertheless. is agreed upon as the
true essence of popularity. Ana IL
seems never TO have been otherwise.
Poetry has never made large appeal.
TO be sure. Shakespeare in his own
day secured a big and enthusiastic
following. But Shakespeare was not
poet alone. He was, besides, the per-
feet play promoter. the master stage
manager, the supreme playwright.
Promptly and in swift succession ne
set his own dramas upon the stage
for the populace to take them IN
through eyes and ears and no more
than the fringes Of their minds. A
tremendous success followed this as
tute and legitimate plan. But this
plan of procedure is far cry from
the purely mental absorption or po-
etry through exclusive brain proc
esses And, since Shakespeare. po-
etry has been helped out many times
in its superficial general appeal by
one artifice or another. A case right
at hand is that of Alfred Noyes him
self. Let an audience hear him me-
lodiously sing songing. Come down
to Kew in lilac time, in lilac time, in
lilac time" and that audience goes
away happy in the thought that II
trulV loves poetry
But-there are lions in the way OF
this true love. The great average
mind the foundation of popular es-
TEEN. is a literal mind and lazy
one. 1t is poor in imagination. lnept
at paralleling the poets aspirations
and soul content with anything II Is
able to find within itself. 1t is Eighty
in efforts toward sustained thought
and alien to reflection. Moreover 1t
is an already pre-empted mind. great
Nv preoccupied with things, and more
things, outside the cloistered twilight
Of abstract thought. The great aN-
erage mind Is at home with things
that the eyes and ears bring to it
colors, shapes, sounds. movements
1t is keen to action and shifting
scenes and swift changes in the ex-
ternal world. In word, the average
mind is out of tune with the mind
Of the poet. And by virtue of this
disSonance the common verdict andS,
as it has so long stood, that poetry
is the possession and paStime of the
few; that through no inherent flaw
in itself. but through natural Hmlta-
tons and defects in its popular sound
ing board, its tones lack a wide and
effective carrying power.
Yet-the poet keeps on singing.
Now and then the chorus is loud and
triumphant. Then 1t sinks TO almost
indistinguishable murmurs and then
again 1t rises TO power and beauty.
Those who have the preaching habit
exhort us often to love our work Tor
its own sake. not for the material re-
wards that it may bring. They en-
large upon the joy Of effort. upon the
soul growth that lies in unrecognized
aspiration and achievement. Now it
seems as If the poet Is the prime ex-
emplar Of this doctrine of unrewarded
toll. And the poet must in his heart
assent to this doctrine, for, despite
rebuff and refusal from any consider
able part of the people, he sings on,
nevertheless. turning out thin little
volumes that SO few read, but that
represent, nevertheless. the impera-
tive and irresistible urge Of his whole
never wholly cordial feel vaguely.
when we stop to feel at all, that a
songless world would be-but this is
inconceivable and lonely and dreary
as a conception even.
X
In theme and structure certain Of
the poems Of Alfred Noyes represent
definitely today the character and
manner Of the epic. This fact stands
out clearly in THE Watchers of the
Sky" and 1.-THE Book of Earth"
two volumes in the projected trilogy.
1.-THE Torch Bearers The theme is
great, the manner grand-prime es-
sentials Of the epic poem. This, all
told, is the story Of man and the uni
verse, OF science and human life. The
first Of the three is the chronicle of
the great astronomers. 1.-THE Book
of Earth"-not quite so happily
named as its edecessor-moves to
and fro among the leaders in science.
In Greece and Italy and France, in
Germany aand Sweden and England
the story moves through the names
and by the works of Pythagoras and
Aristotle, Leonardo da Vinci. Pascal,
Lnnaeus, Darwin, Huxley, Cuvier
and another and another. Inspired
to this great quest by the spectacle
Of the Grand Canyon, that astound-
ing rock record Of the earth, the poet
created this splendid story-poem upon
a theme Of SURPRISING grandeur. Full.
sonorous, rhythmic, here is the
pageant Of the earth unfolding its
deep and momentous secrets under
the revealing hand Of science. A rich
invention out of which rises g. spir-
itual significance that is profound and
beautiful and satisfying.
II