acteristic of "major" poetry. But it is necessary to point out that this common view of poetry is not that of the great artists, whether they be Greeks, Chinese, Japanese, or Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. "In restraint the master first displays himself." By such standards Mr. Aldington must be judged, and he is neither "major" nor "minor," but simply a poet. These Images Old and New as he calls them, divide themselves roughly into two classes, the first dealing with Greek antiquity, the second with modern life. In either case, whatever be the subject, the unity is preserved, and it is a unity of style, of attitude. Mr. Aldington is a poet who speaks the truth. He is never vaguely romantic, or sentimental, or writing to satisfy anything but his own artistic conscience. There is scarcely a page in this small volume in which we cannot find something that will satisfy us at the first reading, and yet more fully with successive readings; but there are some pages which will begin by shocking us and end by convincing us. Here is a force which attracts us the more completely for its apparent simplicity: and it is the force not of realism but of reality. It is very difficult among so much that is good to select for quotation a single poem and to set it apart from the indissoluble unity of the book that contains it. Here, however, is a brief example which I pick because it is among the less frequently quoted poems: The cripples are going to church. Mr. Aldington's Images Their clothes are black, their faces peaked and mean; Their legs are withered Like dried bean pods. Their eyes are stupid as frogs'. And the god, September, There we have it all: a sense of the sordidness of existence, of the wayward and casual beauty with which nature decks that sordidness; irony and pity, concealed yet poignant; and I know not what feeling of nostalgia and transience that arises somehow from all these. Mr. Aldington is a poet, as Simonides and Turgenev were poets. We in America, at least, have much to learn from him. The inchoate vastness of our material and of its intertangled racial currents, the haphazardness of our methods and institutions, all tend to drive us towards a poetry which is ephemeral in that it is hectic, disorganized, lacking in reflective judgment. Europe has already taught us to distinguish the vital elements in the work of such men as Whitman and Poe from the unvital: Europe can teach us more. There are at least a dozen poets in this country who could not do better than to keep a copy of Images Old and New on their shelves, for constant reference and comparison. John Gould Fletcher OUR CONTEMPORARIES I Poetry is not only an art-it is becoming almost an activity. The Drama League of America has prepared for distribution a long list of "Available Material for Shakespeare Tercentennial Programs," for the use of schools, clubs, etc., through this spring and summer of the anniversary year. These programs consist of folk dances, music, and a variety of masques and pageants. Among these latter are fairy masques for children, elaborated from scenes in the plays; and the most important program is Mr. Percy Mackaye's Caliban, which is to be acted through the season by a touring company. II The city of Newark, New Jersey, has offered thirteen prizes, beginning with a first prize of $250, and amounting to $1,000 in all, for poems celebrating the city and its history, in honor of its two-hundred-and-fiftieth anniversary. The poems must not be over one thousand words long, and they must be submitted anonymously before April tenth, to a committee consisting of Prof. John C. Van Dyke, Mr. Thomas L. Masson, Miss Theodosia Garrison, and certain officials and teachers of Newark. We would humbly suggest that the committee should be composed entirely of poets, following the example of such contests in painting, sculpture and architecture. III Our Contemporaries Under the inspiration of lectures by Miss Katharine Howard, author of Eve and other books of verse, the Poetry Society of Utah has been established in Salt Lake City, under the presidency of Miss Myra Sawyer. Similar societies should be founded in many cities. In every such group would probably be found at least one member with a musical voice and a feeling for rhythm, who could read aloud the best modern poetry without turning it into broken prose. Extreme simplicity should be the aim of such a reader-no "elocutionary" effects. The production of verse among the members, and ruthless criticism of it, might well be encouraged also, as an aid to appreciation or a stimulus to possible talent. NOTES Of the two English poets represented this month, one, Mr. Ernest Rhys, has appeared before in the magazine. Long a prominent member of Welsh and Celtic societies, and editor of Everyman's Library, he published, in 1894, A London Rose, and since then Gwenevere, à Lyric Play, and The Masque of the Grail. Mr. Arthur V. Kent, of London, was born in 1892, and has appeared thus far only in two or three English papers. Of the American poets: Agnes Lee (Mrs. Otto Freer), of Chicago, author of The Sharing and other books of verse (Sherman, French & Co.), has been a frequent contributor to POETRY; also Mr. William Rose Benét, of New York, one of the editors of The Century, whose latest book is The Falconer of God and Other Poems (Yale University Press). Mr. Horace Holley, a young New Yorker who has appeared once before, is the author of The Inner Garden (Sherman, French & Co.) and The Stricken King (Shakespeare Head Press). Mr. Clement Wood, a native of Alabama, and now a New York journalist, has contributed verse to The Masses and other papers. Mr. Howard Mumford Jones, now a graduate student of the University of Chicago, is the author of a tiny pamphlet, privately printed in Wisconsin and recently reviewed in POETRY, A Little Book of Local Verse. ORIGINAL VERSE: BOOKS RECEIVED The Listeners, by Walter De La Mare. Henry Holt & Co. Versiculi, by Malcolm Clayton Burke. Privately printed. " and Other Poets", by Louis Untermeyer, Henry Holt & Co. Songs of the Soil, by Fenton Johnson. Privately printed, New York. Today and Tomorrow, by Charles Hanson Towne. Geo. H. Doran Co. The English Tongue and Other Poems, by Lewis Worthington Smith. Four Seas Co., Boston. Five Men and Pompey, a Series of Dramatic Portraits, by Stephen Vincent Benét. Four Seas Co. The Tragedy, a Fantasy in Verse, by Gilbert Moyer. Four Seas Co. PLAYS: The Nameless One: A Play, by Anne Cleveland Cheney. Fred. A. Stokes Co. Master Will of Stratford, by Louise Ayres Garnett. Macmillan. ANTHOLOGIES: The Home Book of Verse for Young Folks, edited by Burton Egbert Stevenson. PROSE: The Epic Songs of Russia, by Isabel Florence Hapgood. With Introduction by J. W. Mackail, M.A., LL.D. Scribner. Letters from America, by Rupert Brooke. With Introduction by Henry James. Scribner. John Bannister Tabb, by M. S. Pine. Privately printed, Washington, D. C. |