Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1935-06-30
By Mary.Carfer Roberts.

EMOTIONAL. Cadenced and de-
claimed by Theodore Dresser.
New York: Simon g. Schuster.
KR. DRESSER breaks a four
M year silence this month and
gives us volume OF verse.
4 Viewed in the current scale,
It would seem to be a rather thick
volume just to contain the poems of
one man. Most of our versifiers to-
day, having hymned their Tyres, pre-
sent us with volumes of the kind
called slender. But Mr.. Dresser does
nothing slenderly. His present book
Is of such physical proportions as
would make it reliable as a doorstep;
1t contains $50 poems, and it also
contains a pretty complete stating of
its authors philosophy. In verse as in
prose Theodore Dresser stands up as
q stout fellow among our writer's
today.
The stoutness of the present volume.
however, is chiefly quantitative. From
the numerical weight of the poems and
their constant repetition of thought
and mood, the reader renews his con-
sciousness of formidable mind utter
ing its findings. But the individual
verses are delicate structures them
selves, never designed to carry more
than one aspect of the total of ideas
which makes up the book, and that
with extreme economy.
Taking them as individual verses
one must be impressed with two things.
The first Is that Theodore Dresser,
whose prose at times is surely the
prosiest in the language. is really a
fine and sensitive poet. There are a
number of verses in the present COL
lection to testify to this. We have in
these the true poetic thought. evident
behind much of his prose work. bodied
forth in exquisitely cadenced language.
Such verses do not make up the bulk
of the collection naturally. There are,
perhaps. IS of them. But they are
easily worth the rest. Offhand it is
hard to think of any one who has
written $50 perfect pieces of poetry.
The other thing which must i'm
press the reader of this volume as he
considers the poems separately, is the
precariousness of the form which Mr..
Dresser has adopted-the prose poem.
It calls for extremely fine discrimina-
ton. not only in Language but in
thought. 1t simply does not allow for
false reasoning or sentiment; it is too
spare, too bare. 1t has no folds OF
lovely verbiage behind whose grace
the conventional or the trite idea can
be hidden. A poet conceivably can be
banal within the gracious confines OF
the sonnet form and still scape whip
ping, but not in this skeletonic prose
verse. Mr.. Dresser at times does not
seem to realize this. His pity for the
luckless humankind errs occasionally
on the side of sentimentality. The
result is as awful. as sudden and as
embarrassing as If guest of honor,
sitting down. had missed his chair.
There is nothing for the reader to do
then but hastily turn another page.
\ Considered as a collection, the book
"a testament of Theodore Dreisers
psophy. That philosophy, of course,
Nailiar. Presented in collec-
- tSshort poems, it has a more
hut aspect than when set down
has told Nhe characters OF a novel,
lin ss - .r;sNantially what Dresser
ope- the 1ittIs. 1t can be summed
iessne s before Qmetimes an anger,
of nature. and h han;stic forcee
reaching through to%ea,assu.ss ~
turn manipulates natG> rce that IN
together with this a prS,lf And
tiveness to the simple phys, sensi~
which these battling forces p..n,r
the senses, as perhaps the on ~
ompense man has for his impote~
It is in recording this latter asp,
OF his philosophy that Mr. Dreis
accomplishes his most beautiful VIZ
ing. Moods, of course. will attract
already large public. The occasion
lifts in its inspiration might al
recommend it to those to whom othe
wise he Is antipathetic.
THE NEW AMERICA: THE NE
WORLD. BY H. G.. Wells. Ne
York: The Macmillan Co.
THIS book is Mr.. Wells comment {
his recent visit to the Unite
States, a comparison of things here ,
he found them on this visit with cor
ditions as they were last year, and
statement Of the potentialities and RI
probabilities which he sees ahead ,
America in its relation to the rest {
the world. 1t Is small book, but 1t
full OF closely-reasoned prophecy, i
OF course Mr.. Wells highly persuasiy
manner. If you accept his premise.
you must needs accept his conclusion.
The picture which energies is not
hattering one. He sees us proceeding
backward and forward at the sam
time, accomplishing reforms with tn
one hand and cancelling them will
the other, and in general attackin,
our problems from every place bu
the vulnerable one-that Is, from tn
bottom. He is appalled, at this, be
cause Americas problems, as he see,
them, are essentially the problems o.
the world, of civilization.
These problems. says Mr.. Wells, ar,
three: First, the arresting of war de.
struct1on; second, the REORGANIZATION
OF distribution: and third, the reshap.
ing OF our financial organization. The
English-speaking countries. he be.
ieves, will have to solve these riddles
Tor the world. They will have to do II
because they are the only countries
which still preserve freedom Of thought
and speech. and which have an out
reaching attitude as compared with
the inturning nationalism of the 9TH
ers. And Of all the English-speaking
lands. America must bear the heaviest
part OF the responsibility. He then
examines our efforts so far, and pro-
pounds the generalities which he feels
have to be accepted as the basis of our
leadership in the proposed reform.
1t is. frankly, a pessfmistic book, and
one does not feel that MIR. Wells
has any great expectation of redemp-