SOME RECENT VERSE

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3167, 18 August 1917, Page 11

SOME RECENT VERSE

The Great Valley. • Mr. Edgar Lee Masters, whose first and curious experiment in vera libre, ' "The Spoon River Anthology," aroused so much discussion, and whoso second hook ot .verse, bongs and Satires." was reviewed 111 these columns last vear has VaTlev" rr 06 V third T boo . k . "The Great .) anoy (1. Werner Laurie, Ltd) llr Master has been hailed as-asecond alin )™L nnd f ft t Gei i tai - nly Possesses «,i ample sliiire of that daring contempt for b»dat»i»l principles of poetic fom Much _ still deters many readers from the T writings of "the good gray poet. In his latest volume he occasionally indulges in quite conventional metres, Ihe Princess Song," for instance, being the lyric, in its Bimnlest, purest form.. As a rule, however, he is moro successful in his pictures of homely life in the smaller towns of the Middle Western States, pictures drawn with a crude-, compelling force, but scarcely to Dβ called poetry, if, indeed, it is even verso. What-he does is to set down the facts of lifo as he sees them. As to tho eiact form of their presontment ho is apparently indifferent. No one can read, for instance, his portrait of the unhappy country journalist, Oto Braden, who, naturally a clever. man, drones hie life awaj T , from twenty-four to fifty-one, worthy of better thincn, but content. to be a mere manipulator of scissors and paste, a. man whose .soul ■ is (leadened fc.T tho sordid, sluggish environment of Winetou Prairie, without being struck' by. the compressed rividity' of the sketch. The extract which follows may not he poetry, but it states facts with merciless truth, and in. a way far moro.effectively convincing than were acceptod poetic ■forms followed: '

. . . It'a simple enough t,o aek Why not write-for TTTo "Eagle," make it better, Give ideas lo the people, help the town; Refresh- the mind, read, study history, De Sencctute! Fancy Teddy Eoosevolt, Who's laboured for thio land with restless gifts, : - TieU a"uWu ia Winston Prairie-well, you can't. , He'd break the ties, and that's the point, you see. ■ For'Oato couTtln't ureal, them, had to stay, Incapable to extract the good that'a here, Susceptible to all Hie bad's that'a here; Ho was~a nose Bali active. Who enters in a room unconscious of the gaa. ; Till he grows sluggish, lies down to rest, And OTes" unknowing. So, I say it's true ThatJVinston Prairie ruined Cato Bradcn, And Hilled him in tlio end. Mr.. Masters is, I. should presume, a Socialist, an anti-militarist, and, in theory at least, a pacifist. But circumstances alter cases, and events shatter theories. In the long hnramruo entitled "Come Kepublic," after denouncing America's policy in Cltfiui and tlio Philippines, he has to admit that neutrality can no longer be his country's policy. For you are not neutral, '.Republic, You only pretend to he, You are not free, independent, brave, You arc shackled, 'coWirdiy, ■ For what might hapiien to you overnight, In the OriciiC If you stood with your shoulders up * . And were NeutraT? SuppbiS you do it, Kepublic, Get sonic class. . «. Throw out your chest, lift up your head, Be a ruler in the world. And not a hermit iu regimentals with a Hint-lock. Colossus with one foot in Europe And one in Ohina Quit looking between your legs for the reappoarance , Of the star o£ Bethlehem— Stand up and bo a man! Sir. Masters gives us some keenly satiritul attacks on the vulgar materialism which; in the past, has been such u potont factor in- American social life. No one- can read such a -poom' as "The Typical American" without perceiving the wholesome 6corn of the man whose heart is set on "the better things" lor the soulless m"ony-gnibbing so widely prevalent amongst his countrymen. But the book is not all satire nor scorn nor denunciation. The outlook on life, especially on the foibles and frailties of men and women, is sometimes quite tenderly tolerant and gentle. The author is clearly a man possessed of intense sympathy for thoso who fall by .the way. I warmly commend Hie book to my readers as a. singularly original and arresting piece of wort. (Price Cs.)

At Vancouver's Well. A couple of years or so ago Dr. Kentoul, of Melbourne, published a volume of verse, "'From Far Lands; J'opins ol i\oi-ih auu South," which elicited the warmest praise from leading English reviewers. A second book from his pen is now to hand, "At Vancouver's Well, and Other Poems of South and North" (Macmillan and Co.). In the title poem, or series of poems, Dr. Befftoul pays an eloquent tribute to tho splondid work of Vancouver, to whom the biographers of British voyagers and explorers have scarcely been ns generous, or even'as just, as they might have been. The poem takes its title from a spring known to this day as Vancouver's Well, which is situated at a point jutting out of the opening of Princess Charlotte Bay, King. George's Sound, South Australia, where Vancouver stood under the unfurled British Flag, drinking tie King's liealth and ■ taking possession of the country in the King's name. He called it Possession Point. Dr. Eentoul is specially interesting when lie describes Vancouver's experiences in the Northern Pacific. The whole poem, or sequence of poems, is couched in a vein of high patriotic pride, expressed with most felicitous eloquence.' . Another section of the book includes a patriotic ode on the establishment of the Australian Commonwealth, and two, poems inspired by angling experiences of the author in New Zealand.' Under the heading of "The Sign of the Sword" are a number of poems on subjects suggested by the ' war. A pathetiu though beautiful poem is thatentitled "Ncuve Chapelle," in which the author describes how spring-time came to that sadly shattered village, and it was the turn of the' Allies to achieve a victory which wiped out the ghastly memories of past reverses:

And Neuve Cliapelle, so wrecked and torn ■' by wild war's ruthless hate. ' Kooked in the trembling of the world aa if with heart elate: ' Ana, by the Ohm-ch, the sleeping dead . rose from their resting-place. In scorn and wonder at their foes, and looked them in the face, Then sank b'ack, restful, satisfied, by their ' white Church's wall That [ell above them, mantling them in one white funeral paU! Ah when" the dreadful light was fought. and the great victory won. A stranger thing was never seen beneath the gazing sun. For, 'mid the shattered carven tombs, fragments of. crosses white, That German guns had wrecked and torn, u horror in God's sight. There stood one object-wonderful, unhurt, pathetic,' lone — As if appealing 'mid the waste of tumbled . grave and stone; It was the wooden crucifix that rose at Antoinc's head, The anguished, Christ upon the road amid the sleeping dead. .- . . Above the ravage of man's hale, that lone poor wooden Cross Stands lifting up its protest dumb, through all Time's gain and loss. Aud whilst the. gallant British and French troops light on, in the bright sunshine, blackbirds and thrushes, all unconscious of Hie horrors below (hem. sing cheerily. Tho poem concludes thus: Then in the trenches,—o, my Cod! strong men broke down and wepl, The battle-rage, the red blood-lust, from heart and memory swept! They were again in English Holds, by Scottish heath and stream. By swi'i'l Welsh valleys, Irish lakes where wistful waters gleam. Where, 111 rough the woods at morn and eve, blackbird and Ibrush may sing,And down the river, and in streets, the shouts of children ring, And o'er (lie meadows soars the lark lost in the" listening blue; And Ihn wild winler-iiine is past, and all things are made new.

0 Gross, lift up thy raute appeal, above man's hate and hell; 0 birds, sing clear your Spring-time song, as then at Neuve Ohapelle. In a long "Historical Appendix" the autifSv gives some exceedingly interesting notes on Vancouver and his career. (N.Z. price, ,65.) The Vision Splendid. In "The Vision .Splendid" (Methuen and Co.), Mr.' John Oxenham, whose "Bees in Amber," "All's .Well," and "The King's Highway" have achieved such widespread popularity, presents' yet another series of poems, dealing, for the most part, with the spiritual side of the war. His "Vision Splendid" is a vision of a world iu which God and Eight shall reign supreme. As he says in his preface:— The equl of tho world has been shocked at last into true understanding of the inevitable and dire results of purely materi'alistic aims. It has Been the soul of a great nation deliberately self-notEoiied at the fount by the worship of a false ideal. Tho one groat loss'to the world ie tho lees of the German soul. Time and the will thereto may repair even that. Mr. Oxenham's new poems are mostly of a spiritual, indeed devotional, character. Ho rarely deals with specific, events, an exception being some lines on the i murder of Nurse Cavell . and a really cloquont tribute to the. late Lord Kitchener. In "Our Wounded," tho poet makes an eloquently-worded plea that tho ■ nation's duties and responsibilities to those who have (ought for it shall bo fully and generously discharged:--Britain, too often, once the. struggle ended, You have forgotten.where your duty lay. Your sons who with.their lives your life defended, You havo left stranded on.Jife's .dreary Your promises were all too soon forgotten: The land was strewn with wreckage of your wars; ■--... ,* Tho woes by your- indifference begotten. I'ou left untouded . ... But you bare tho 6cars— Scars deep and ghastly ou your reputation, Smirches and blemishes on your fair fanio; ' See to it now,—nor sign your abdication! See to it now,—nor bow our iii:.da in shame! If one'poor broken soul you leave unfriended -The world will know your own soul's life is dead: Then shall your hope of dominance be ended:— : Worthless the body whence the soul is - fled. Hereby the world shall test your right to headship, Hereby shall know if you aro sound at heart, . . Of if your soul is sunken in the dead si cop Of those who value notTTio better part. Already 40,000 copies of Mr. Oxenham's httlo booklet have been 6.01 din Great Britain. (Price Is. .Gd.) .