Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-02-27

1.-THE Testament of Beauty" by Rob-
ert Bridges, England's poet laureate. is
true poem in the legendary manner
1t will be read and admired by those
who like such poetry.
AS for the remainder of humanity
they had better let it alone, as no doubt
they will. The love of poetry is not a
natural taste with many of this age
nor is 1t an acquired one with thou
sands.
Here is a long poem (some 400C
lines) in the manner of Wordsworth
Excursion" a didactic effort in -four
books devoted to a philosophic, reasoned
outlook upon life with particular refer
ence to beauty.
What will strike the lay reader par
ticularly, even before he opens the book
published by the oxford University
Press, New York is the glorious temer-
ity of a man IS years old in writing
such a poem.
A far. far younger man might well
hesitate before offering such work to
the world. Not before in this century
has a man of any age dared to do it
Yet it is fitting that it should be done
Most of us imagine that had we lived
in WordSworth's day we would have
been among the first to recognize the
beauty of his best lines. We like to
think that Tennyson would have re-
ceived his first plauditS from our appre-
ciatiVe hands.
The average reader will be slow to
pass a Judgment on THE Testament OF
Beauty" showing as it does such a
strange mixture of the old and new
such splendid daring in adoption of the
"simplified spelling" such courageous
use of old words, such fearlessness in
the expression of truth.
Yet he will do well to suspend iudg-
ment until he has read this book many
times, for the impression which it leaves
with a poetical inclined reader at first
is that here is a work for which one
reading is entirely inadequate.
The first book, called simply the en-
PRODUCTION" is typical of the entire
work. The first seven lines are in
dicative of the whole. We believe that
an average reader, by sampling them,
may be able to judge whether he would
care to read the remainder. 1t should
be noted that DR.. Bridges has not used
capital letters at the beginning of lines
except when sentence begins. This
the modern reader will like.
Mortal Prudence, handmade of divine
Providence,
hath inscrutable reckoning with Fate
and Fortune:
We sail changeful sea through halcyon
day and storm,
and when the shap laboureth, our sted-
fast purpose
trembles like as the compass in bin
nacle.
Our stability is but balance, and wisdom
lies
in masterful administration of the I'M
foreseen."
There the reader has the beginning
of what may prove to be the greatest
poem written in our day and genera
this scholar and gentleman, whose work
as poet laureate has hitherto brought
him little fame.
A writer in England's Manchester
Guardian said, in this connection, IF,
by chance, The Testament of Beauty
should be a great poet laureate's vale
dictory volume, it will worthily repre-
sent the age Of which he is one Of the
leaders"
The learned j. C. Squire has declared
THE most veracious and thrilling, as
we'll as the most learned poem about
man, time and eternity since Words
worth's Prelude"
"Our stability is but balance, and wis
dom lies
in masterful administration of the I'M
foreseen."
One has but to think back over the
World War. that tragedy of mankind
to realize the truth of those lines. And
the POLITICALLY inclined reader may in
sist that there is a certain unforgettable
quality about them which brings them
within the realm of the worlds greatest
poetry.
In the next few lines the poet de-
clares that "'Twas late in my journey
when 1 had clomb to where the path
was narrowing and the company few,
that glow of childlike wonder en-
thralled him, and his sense had come