The Little Review, October 1914 (Vol. 1, No. 7)Various
General
The Little Review, October 1914 (Vol. 1, No. 7)
Various
Literature, Modern -- 20th century -- Periodicals
That which gives ear to the tongues of stones and from marble delivers
its soul, he wanted Life to seek. There was a spice in art for Morris
which made it dangerous for milk-sops. Art for him was a Reality; the
existence around him a fraud, and Life a cowardice. He had Truth on his
side; he hated shams and he joined the socialist movement because he saw
here a means for their overturning. In a very interesting chapter Mr.
Brock tells how Morris, after breakfasting with Burne-Jones, would go
out to some street corner and lecture on socialism to a throng of
workingmen, some dirty and in rags. He had his courage--this man.
There dwells in each of us a heroism of which the last has not been
spoken. Carlyle was drunk with it, Emerson wrote it, Morris lived it. A
great artist, but a greater man. Life for him was a cavalier
extravagance--thus would he have all men live. To make the world live,
we must give of our living. Breathe life into all things that they too
will have manners and extend a friendship's greetings.
For practical people Morris is still anathema; for human beings,
however, he is yet a comrade in the struggle. Mr. Brock's study of him
is therefore welcome, coming as it does with fresh intelligence of his
nature. His book most certainly is a thing to be read.
G. F.
Exaggerated Mushrooms
_Minions of the Moon_, by Madison Cawein. [Stewart and Kidd,
Cincinnati.]
At a glance the book seems merely a collection of unusual
nursery-rhymes, but after a careful reading one finds little glimmers of
poetry, like faded flowers touched with sulphur and pressed between the
leaves of a very inane volume. If you have the sublime suggestion of
patience necessary to turn the leaves of the book you will rather
delight in fingering the flowers. They are moon-light flowers. Mr.
Cawein is at his best when he goes into his usual tremulous raptures
over moon-light. His moon-light poems actually drip with slim, wistful
(to use a much-abused word) color. If he could forget elfs, fairies, and
mushrooms for more than a moment, Madison Cawein would reach the
plateaus, if not the mountain-tips of poetry. But he can only cast out
the trite child which has taken possession of him, now and then. Strange
to say, though three or four of the poems in the volume are good, they
do not contain a line worth quoting. Their halfbeauty lies in the
ensemble. As for the rest of the book, I can best describe it by saying
that one feels inclined to turn over the page.
M. B.
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