James Stephens was not widely known until the year 1912, when he published a novel called _The Crock of Gold;_ this excited many readers in Great Britain and in America, an excitement considerably heightened by the appearance of another work of prose fiction, _The Demi-Gods,_ in 1914; and general curiosity about the author became rampant. It was speedily discovered that he was a poet as well as a novelist; that three years before his reputation he had issued a slim book of verse, boldly named _Insurrections,_ the title being the boldest thing in it. By 1915 this neglected work had passed through four editions, and during the last six years he has presented to an admiring public five more volumes of poems, _The Hill of Vision,_ 1912; _Songs from the Clay,_ 1915; _The Adventures of Seumas Beg,_ 1915; _Green Branches,_ 1916, and _Reincarnations,_ 1918. A. E. believed in him from the start; and it was owing to the influence of A. E. that _Insurrections_ took the form of a book, gratefully dedicated to its own begetter. Both patron and protégé must have been surprised by its lack of impact, and still more surprised by the immense success of _The Crock of Gold._ The poems are mainly realistic, pictures of slimy city streets with slimy creatures crawling on the pavements. It is an interesting fact that they appeared the same year of Synge's _Poems_ with Synge's famous Preface counselling brutality, counselling anything to bring poetry away from the iridescent dreams of W. B. Yeats down to the stark realities of life and nature. They bear testimony to the catholic breadth of A. E.'s sympathetic appreciation, for they are as different as may be imagined from the spirit of mysticism. It must also be confessed that their absolute merit as poetry is not particularly remarkable; all the more credit to the discernment of A. E., who described behind them an original and powerful personality. The influence of Synge is strong in the second book of verses, called _The Hill of Vision_, particularly noticeable in such a poem as _The Brute_. Curiously enough, _Songs from the Clay_ is more exalted in tone than _The Hill of Vision_. The air is clearer and purer. But the author of _The Crock of Gold_ and _The Demi-Gods_ appears again in _The Adventures of Seumas Beg_. In these charming poems we have that triple combination of realism, humour, and fantasy that gave so original a flavour to the novels. They make a valuable addition to child-poetry; for men, women, angels, fairies, God and the Devil are treated with easy familiarity, in practical, definite, conversational language. These are the best fruits of his imagination in rime. THE DEVIL'S BAG