The Little Review, May 1915 (Vol. 2, No. 3)Various
General
The Little Review, May 1915 (Vol. 2, No. 3)
Various
Literature, Modern -- 20th century -- Periodicals
Where Mr. Lawrence gives us the broadest view of Imagism from an English
standpoint that this newer, more vital group has offered us, Miss Lowell
does the same service for the American side. The qualities that make her
work noteworthy are first, a virtuoso command of language that fits
itself to the most diverse themes, and second, a sort of fantastic,
curious irony that is essentially American. This irony is perhaps at its
finest in _The Traveling Bear_ and _The Letter_, but these are too long
to quote. I choose instead _Bullion_, which may be taken for a very
modern type of love poem, in which love itself becomes a burden:
My thoughts
Chink against my ribs
And roll about like silver hail-stones.
I should like to spill them out,
And pour them, all shining,
Over you.
But my heart is shut upon them
And holds them straitly.
Come, You! and open my heart;
That my thoughts torment me no longer,
But glitter in your hair.
Miss Lowell always looks at things from an angle. Her mind reflects the
unusual aspect and that most vividly. As she says of herself:
When night drifts along the streets of the city,
And sifts down between the uneven roofs,
My mind begins to peek and peer.
It plays at ball in old, blue Chinese gardens,
And shakes wrought dice-cups in Pagan temples,
Amid the broken flutings of white pillars.
It dances with purple and yellow crocuses in its hair,
And its feet shine as they flutter over drenched grasses.
How light and laughing my mind is,
When all the good folk have put out their bed-room candles,
And the city is still!
Miss Lowell has the ability which is rare among present-day poets of
recognizing that beauty does not belong to an epoch or a period, but is
always the same, under whatever strange form it may present itself.
Doubtless her most remarkable poem is that called _The Bombardment_.
Whether the technique adopted here by Miss Lowell is destined to work a
revolution in verse-writing remains for the future to settle. But here,
at least, it perfectly justifies itself. No one should permit, however,
a question of technique to obscure the deep tragedy, the splendid
humanity, of this poem. War has only one beauty: that of its terrible
destructiveness of all beauty. _The Bombardment_ is the best statement
of this aspect of war I know. It must be read in its entirety, and so I
will not attempt piecemeal quotation of this most fitting conclusion to
the volume.
This book is so provocative of thought, the poets in it are so
suggestive, each one by him—or herself, that each really requires a
separate review. But I have said enough to show what an important volume
this little book is. We are told that it is to be an annual, and
certainly we shall watch its succeeding appearances with great interest.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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