Evening star., 1933-06-10
THE LIBRARY TABLE
BY SARAH C. BOWERMAN.

FAkSAA 11OiNo ON ME lAFd olS
THEME. BY winifred Holmes.
London: The Unicorn Press.
The author of this little volume of
very modern verse. some of which has
previously appeared in English period
icals, was known in Washington sew
eral seasons ago as Winifred Young
when she spoke before a number OF
the clubs on present-day English au-
thors and on some of her experiences
in India. The title poem, at the end,
eliminates all conventional concep-
tions of time and space and moves in
a fourth -dimensional realm of whose
significance we are not entirely GER
tain. But certainties are not of the
essence of poetry. More concretely
stream of consciousness school (school
is too formal word) of literature, of
which Virginia Wolf and Dorothy
Richardson are among the best ex-
ponents and the followers of James
Joyce consider him the leader The
''metaphysic theme" is perhaps the
aimlessness, the futility, the gloom,
the upheaval of our modern life. The
variations wander into the lines and
out again, like waits seeking a home
Babies, with their ears so pink and
frilly," must be fed and must have
clothes and house, land what would
they work at when they're grown?
The profile of London. through a mist
points spire fingers to the East, i'm
portuning Christ for hints of heaven -
The bare branches of the Winter trees
are repeated like refrain. Will the
Spring come again? Will this zero
hour" be ultimate? No; there will be
stirring of new life.
walk on the waters of such time
With steady feet, my soul, my friends
And shudder not their touch is chill
Their progress imperceptible.
Or be embrined;
The gulls will put out soon
And the trees decorate their bone,
Although we reach an unexpected
beach"
Of the twenty-three shorter poems
most are in minor strain, but, like
Matthew Arnold's poetry of an earlier
generation, they have an inspiration of
courage. The first in the volume, 'The
future is not for u.s." is reminiscent
of his poem, The Last Word" In
Park Gate" one of the lighter poems,
the silk k-and-lace-clad figure of Charles
II again walks the sandstone prom
enade Of the watering place on the
banks of the Dee in Cheshire which
he created. The ghost of an old woman,
with face distorted by terror, haunts
the place where she was nearly moved
down by the "devil-steered" traffic "In
Shaftesbury Avenue" Mrs. Holmes
shows in her poems imagination which
goes far beyond the superficial, is
sometimes macabre, nearly always
deeply thoughtful. Her versiflcation is
OF rhyme and meter, but has abundant
entirely free from the older conventions
rhythm, and her phrasing Is remarka-
bly, varied and original
ENGLAND THEIR ENGLAND. BY
A. G. Macdonell. London Mac
milan e. Co.
A Scotsman looks at England and SO
Incorporates himself in the character of
his hero that we cannot tell where
Donald Camerson ends and MIR. Mac
donell begins. The events of this mix
ture OF fiction and fact had their origin,
we are told, in conversation between
Donald Cameron and Evan Davies, a
Scotch and Welsh artillery officer. in
a pilf-box (the corner farthest from the
door on the Western Front, upon the
slopes OF the Passchendaele Ridge, in
October, 1917. From their vantage
point OF conscious superiority, they fell
to discussing the English as soldiers,
and then as other things. Cameron told
of an English colonel who wore an eye
glass, read the Tatler and talked like
the Taller, and one day walked up to a
BoSche machine gun emplacement with
walking stick and came back with So
prisoners. Davies remembered an Eng
hsh subaltern who used to run and ex-
tinguish fires in ammunition dumps to
save government money He was buried
in the little cemetery back of Vlamer-
tlnghe, Davies reflected. But, said
Davies, why do they have a Welsh
prime minister and Scotch" Not
Scotch. Scots. Or Scottish" inter-
rlpted Cameron. Sorry. A Scottish
commander -in-chief and a Scottish first
sea lord OF the admiralty, and think 1t
should write book about the Eng
!ish. Then, after the war, when both
were fortunately alive, they met quite
by chance at the Black Cat, in London,
and the book was mentioned again.
Cameron began seriously to collect ma
terlal and was soon puzzled by para
doxeS. Why, for example, when he had
sought out group of people reputed to
be brilliant, did they all persist in talk
ing merely f1ippant nothings? Through
Mr.. Hodge, editor of the London Week.
ly, Donald met many people and learned
much about the English. 1t is to be
surmised that Mr. Hodge is the poet
j. G. Squire, to whom this book is ded-
icated As private secretary to a mem
Der Of Parliament Donald had election
eering experiences and accompanied
his chief to Geneva for committee
work. He also had abundant oppor-
tunity to watch the English at their
sports, especially cricket, golf, rugby
foot ball, and to speculate on the single
mindedness of their attitude. The de-
scription of a cricket match is one of
the most entertaining parts of the book
which is a clever and illuminating
blending Of humor and serious observa-
ton.
SWASTIKA: THE NAZI TERROR. BY
James Waterman Wise New York:
Harrison Smith and Robert Haas.
The anti-Semitic part of the Nazi
program which, according to newspaper
accounts, has developed with such ra-
pidity since the beginning of the Hit
Ter dictatorship is the subject of Mr..
WiSe's small book. His statements are
based upon newspaper dispatches and
new information. There is little at
tempt, also, to sift evidence. Indigra-
tion inspires the style. Though Ger
many has not been the first or the only
country in modern times to carry on an
anti-Semitic campaign, Mr.. Wise finds
the NaZi attitude especially disastrous
because of its plan for destroying jew
ish business and participation in the
rights of citizenship. In his first chap
ter, THE Advance Guard of Hate" he
places early responsibilities upon Metz
sche and other nationalistic German
writer's. The chapter "Out of Their
Own Mouths" made up of quotations
from the writings and speeches of Nazi
leaders, shows that stimulation of anti
Jewish feeling was conscious and delib-
crate through all the periods following
the World War. THE Brown Terror"
rehearses the events affecting the Jews
which took place Immediately after Hit
Ter came into Office Succeeding chap