Evening star., 1938-02-13

nT. Untefmeyer
viii Talk and Read Tonight.
And speaking of poets, Washington
Is to have one of Americas most dis
tinguished at ye old Town Hall Meet
Ing tonight at the Rialto Theater.
Mr.. Louis Untermeyer comes down
from New York to tell his audience
what Americans read and why. II
one stops any day in front of book
shop window and reads the titles on
the miscellaneous collection of books
put there to tempt him, he will see
plainly what they read, but may
often be at a loss as to why. As
poet, critic, essayist and editor, Mr.
Untermeyer talks as delightfully."- as
he writes, and tonight, instead of the
panel and questions from the audience
after the lecture, the speaker will
read some of his poems. There is one
very familiar to lovers of poetry which
to many seems a delineation of the
character, aspirations. hopes and
sympathies of the man. He some-
times sings heavenly songs: and then
he reaches down into the depths and
pictures the despair, the misery and
hopelessness of the discouraged and
unfortunate. The Prayer" visions
and understands his mood:
GOD, though this life is but a wrath.
Although We know not what we use,
Although We grope with little faith,
Give me the heart to fght-and
lose.
Ever insurgent let me be,
Make me more daring than devout:
From sleek contentment keep me free,
And fill me with buoyant doubt.
open my eyes to visions girt
With beauty and with wonder lit
But let me always see the dirt
And all the spawn that lie in 1t.
open my ears to music; let
Me thrill with springs first flutes
and drums
But never let me dare forget
The bitter ballads of the slums.
Prom compromise and things half
done.
Keep me. with stern and stubborn
pride:
And when at last the fight is won,
God keep me still unsatisfied."
His poems for children have a
merry charm. and his book of Col
lected Parodies"-"Parodies Lost"-is
simply fascinating. Some. entitled
the Modern Nursery" charm old and
young alike. This one. in which John
Masefleld tells the true story of Tom,
Tom, the piper's son:
Thomas. the vagrant piper's son,
Was fourteen when he took to fun;
He vas the sixth Of bewilderin'
Family of eleven children.
Mary, the first of all the lot,
Was married to a drunken sot."
One does not think of poet as flav-
Ing business ability, but Mr.. Inter-
meyer besides being most successful in
the world of business, before he was so
had written and compiled more than
80 volumes of prose and verse. His
Anthology of Living Verse" is con-
sidered by many critics the logical
successor to the Oxford Book of Eng
1ish verse. But to many of his ad-
mirers his translations of Heine's
poems are his masterpiece. And his
life OF Heine opened up a new vision
OF that great German poet to whom in
broader sense he could be compared.
Heine's humor was more of the
lugubious sort. Untermeyers has
gaiety and life. William Rose Benet
says Untermeyer is entitled to be
called the American Heine.
Heine Last of
German Romantic School.
To Mr.. Untermeyer, Heine is the last
OF the German romantic school and |
says one must keep in mind his life and
love story to understand his poetry to
the fullest his sensitive and secre-
tive life. In describing his poems he
speaks of the many colors, lights and
shades, dancing sunlight and dark and
stormy clouds Heine throws upon his
canvas, and says: "Sphinxes, moon