* _America and Other Poems. By W. J. Dawson._ (Lane: $1.25 net.) The
expression of an ideal America as seen by one with an alien tradition.
The volume includes several fine ballad narratives, notably “The Kiss,”
“Salome,” and the swift sure rhythmic “Last Ride of the Sheik Abdullah;”
above all, “Blake’s Homecoming,” a member of the royal line of English
ballads. In addition to competent lyrics on various themes, special
attention should be called to the poems of childhood and the delicately
imagined meditative poems of religious feeling. So many religious poems
rely wholly on a good intention, “more fit to pave Hell than cause
rejoicing in Heaven,” as a French critic says, that exceptions should be
noted. The volume marks an appreciable advance over Dr. Dawson’s
previous collections.
_A Pageant of the Thirteenth Century for the Seven Hundredth Anniversary
of Roger Bacon. The Text by John Erskine._ (Columbia University Press.)
A pageant reflecting the culture and endeavor of the thirteenth century
in every field. The text is in verse of fine texture and imaginative
expression by Professor Erskine of Columbia University. While the
pageant itself has been deferred because of the war, it is still
possible to enjoy the text, and to look forward to the pageant’s
representation in the near future.
_Lux Juventutis: A Book of Verse. By Katharine A. Esdaile._
(Houghton-Mifflin: $1.25 net.) The first volume of a young English poet
who shows considerable promise. It is characterised by classical
restraint and a fine feeling for form, and does not lack singing
quality.
* _Sonnets from the Patagonian. By Donald Evans._ (Claire-Marie: $1.25
net.) Eighteen impressionistic sonnets of exotic workmanship, suggesting
the fantasy of Laforgue, but more extremely composed in disembodied
words. They rely on tone color for much of their effect, and are bizarre
to the point of irony. However, they grow on the reader as he becomes
familiar with them, and their consummate art is unquestionable.
* _Sonnets of a Portrait-Painter. By Arthur Davison Ficke._ (Kennerley:
$1.00 net.) A sequence of fifty-seven sonnets in an undeservedly
neglected form, which do not recall too definitely Meredith’s _Modern
Love_. They are extremely subtle and their intellectual content is very
closely woven, so that they will prove difficult reading, but they repay
careful study, and in many sonnets the lyric impulse has happily
overmastered the poet completely. A collection which is worthy of
several readings.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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