STUDIES IN FOLK-SONG AND POPULAR POETRY, By Alfred M. Williams. With A Prefatory Note By Edward Clodd, London: Elliot Stock, 62, Paternoster Row, E,C. 1895. PREFACE |Mr. Williams's essays merit a few words of commendation from folk-lorists on this side of the Atlantic as being calculated to interest readers in a subject which is full of profound significance, but against which they may possibly be prejudiced in the degree that science claims it as material for analysis. For within the last few years folk-lore has been promoted to the rank of a serious study and the Folk-Lore Society of London, aided by its numerous and lusty offshoots, both American and Continental, is busily applying the scientific method to fireside tale, custom, song, and ballad seeking what old philosophies lie at the heart of these, and what they have to tell about intercourse between peoples in the past. Nevertheless, the folk-lorist treats his subject-matter as tenderly as Isaak Walton bade the angler hook his worm, for he remembers what poetry the song and saga hold, and that laughter and tears are ever young. These essays range over a wide field, both of space and time. The earlier in arrangement deal with subjects which are purely literary and modern, and justify their presence only in the reasons advanced by the author. But the major number come within the ken of the folk-lorist, and appeal not to him only, but to all who are moved by the passion and sincerity of primitive poetry, in the skill and sympathy with which the varied note of folk-song in East and West is interpreted. In some of the examples, however, notably those from Roumania, Mr. Williams does not sufficiently allow for the modern dress in which the peasant verse is clothed. Edward Clodd. STUDIES IN FOLK-SONG AND POPULAR POETRY. AMERICAN SEA SONGS. |Oh, fare ye well, my pretty, fair maids, I'm bound for the Rio Grande! Ri-o-Rio I I'm bound for the Rio Grande!