Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-07-12
THE LIBRARY TABLE
BY the BookIorer

Poet laureate of sailors and long
Shoremen, champion "of the manned,
of the halt and the blind in the rain
and the cold"-this John Masefield has
been ever since he began, with his
Saltwater Ballads" his career as
writer of verse. Now, the King has
been graciously pleased to appoint John
Masefield, Esq. d. Lift. 10 be poet
laureate in ordinary 10 his majesty.
But MaSefeld'S sympathieS may still be
counted on for "the tramp of the road"
The slave with the sack on his shout
ders pricked on with the goad.
The man with too weighty burden,
too weary load"
He himself has tramped muddy roads,
worked IN pub" and factory and be-
fore the mast. In his poetry Masefield
has always been a story-teller His best
known poetry tales are The Everlast-
ing Mercy" THE Widow in the Bye
Street." "Dauber" and THE Daffodil
Fields" His three poems of The Eng
liSh countryside "Reynard the Fox"
the story of fox hunt; Right Royal,
the story of steeplechase. and King
Cole" the story of travelling circus,
have been considered to resemble the
poetry of Chaucer; and now, if Chaucer
may be considered to have been some
thing of poet laureate; because of his
royal pension. MaSefield is his official
as well as literary successor. Since
Chaucer the poets laureate have IN
cluded some of the most famous OF
English poets. Ben Jouson, because of
his pension, is also looked upon as
laureate, but the title was first con-
ferred upon John Dryden, by letters
patent, in 1910. Southey, Wordsworth
and Tennyson enjoyed the honor. The
last two laureates before MaSefield were
Alfred Austin and Robert Bridges, who
died recently.
In addition to his narrative poems.
MaSefield has written many lyrics of
great beauty He believes in poetry
that can be spoken and sung by the
people and he inaugurated the annual
oxford REGULATIONS" contests in verse
speaking, to which people come from all
parts of England to recite and hear
poetry. Masefields published volumes
of lyrics include Saltwater Ballads"
Ballads" Poems and Ballads Son
nets and Poems Some of his best
lyrics are Truth" ION Growing Old"
August, 1914" and the beautiful lines
to his mother, &C. L. M" He has writ
ten several novels. which have not won
for him additional reputation; "Sard
Harker" is probably the best. Among
his plays which have been produced are
THE Campden Wonder" Nan" Pom
pey the Great" 1.-THE Sweeps of Ninety
Eight" Phillip the King" The Faith
full" THE Locked Chest" THE Con-
demned Cell" Mrs. Harrison" Good
Friday" Esther" 'Melloney Holt
spur" "a Kings Daughter" The Trial
Of Jesus and Tristan and Isolt." HIS
play, 1.-THE Coming Of Christ" was sung
in Canterbury Cathedral before large
and reverent audience. Maseheld's
poems have been collected in one VOL
lme. A new book. THE Wanderer of
Liverpool" the true story of great
ship, told in prose and verse, is an
nounced for the early Autumn. After
many early years of wandering and
hardship. and after terrible experiences
at Gallipoli during the World War,
Masefield now leads peaceful country
life at his home, Bears Hill, miles
from oxford.
A few years ago oxford secured for
the Alfonso XIII Chair OF Spanish
Studies the Spanish scholar, Salvador
de Madariaga, former member OF the
secretariat of the League OF Nations
Senior Madariaga is the author of many
magazine articles published in this
country, all showing wide knowledge OF
European social, economic and political
problems. His book. Spain" has re-
Gently been published in London and
is announced for publication in this
country in the Autumn 1t interpretS
Spain and her people as a patriotic
but internationally minded Spaniard
sees them. Many years were spent IN
collecting the material. The headings
of the four parts are Land, People and
History; school and Larder," THE
rJ1-- ~. T1aErr -
and "The Reign of Alfonso XIII"
Though Alfonso XIII occupies a most
important place in headlines, it is not
because Senior Madariaga admires and
approves of him. He thinks that Al
fonso made a fatal mistake when he
feared democracy to such an extent
that he turned to the army and the
church to protect him from it; he
should have trusted it. AS a result
democratic institutions have been I'M
dermined He describes the beginning
of the dictatorship caustically and says
of Alfonso: "a devout Catholic, he made
the sacrifices of his oath on the goS-
pels King, he broke his royal word
For such valuable hostages given to
fortune, what were his explanations?
Since was born a King, let me gov
ern,' he said. The King wanted to
govern"
X
That the artist in all forms of Gre
ative art. in the industrial United States
of the period since the Civil War, has
had hard time to preserve his artistic
soul and at the same time to make
living, is the thesis of Matthew Joseph
sons book, Portrait of the Artist as
American" Emerson, Holmes, Thoreau,
Hawthorne and the Alcotts came at the
end of an era before mechanical inven-
ton had revolutionized American life.
II was not until after the Civil War that
the agrarian regime in this country was
replaced by the industrial regime SO
much less favorable to art All the
original artists following the Civil War,
says Mr.. Josephson, were obliged to find
an escape. Emily Dickinson escaped
through mySticism-and death. Henry
James, Stephen Crane and Whistler
went to England and remained there,
Henry Adams spent much time in Eng
land and France and found mental
refuge IN the study of Oriental philos-
opLiy ana medieval architecture. Laf-
caolo Hearn became, as far as possible,
Japanese. Among those who STAYED
IN thelr own country and managed to
enoure II were Howells and Mark
IVAN. Mr.. JosephSon works out forms
Oh escape which made life tolerable for
mem. Perhaps he does not emphasize
enough the fact that both of them Gre
ated really original American literature
ana managed to make a living, too.
X
n. U. Wells has perpetrated another
fantastic political romance. called "The
Autocracy of Mr.. Parham," Hinder the
gulse OF Mr.. Parham, British universjtv
professors, with their erratic noIiticaI
IDEAS, are satirized Mr.. Parham does
as many foolish things as Mr. wells
can think of, among them making an
excursion INTO spiritualism. In the Spirit
WoIIo ne establishes Fascist Dictator
snip IN England, makes war on Russia