ABOUT ANTHOLOGIES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 14002, 7 September 1907, Page 7

ABOUT ANTHOLOGIES.

Messrs Methuen announce a new volume by Mr E. V. Lucas, "The Gentlest Art: An Anthology of Entertaining Letters," under which titlo Mr Lucas has brought together, from the earliest- times to the present, some hundreds of familiar letters of great and small writers, which he .has arranged in such a way a 6 to give tho book a distinct personality, akin to that of its companion volumes, -"The Open' Road" and "The Friendly Town." Many epistolary .anthologies have teen made, but air previous editors have had the desire to adduce the letters a 6 literature. Mr Lucas's aim has been to illustrate what might be called " let-terature." In other words, every letter in his pages is interesting for its matter, quite as much, if not more, than its manner. The contributions range from King David to .Mr Anstev.

Since tho. publication a few years 6inee of Mr E. V. Lucas's delightful anthology, "The Open Koad," the namo of similar compilations has been legion. The latest recruit to their ranks is a dainty little volume, "The Pocket-book of Poems anil Songs for -t-ho Open Air" (E. Grant Richards, Is net), compiled by Mr Edward Thomas for tho delectation of tlioss who combine a liking for pedestrianisnii with a taste for poetry. The bcok, it must be said, amply justifies ils existence. Certainly 110 . more delightful, companion for a walking tour coula be imagined. In general arrangement the volume follows rather closely the two anthologies of Mr Lucas. Its range is, perhaps, icss catholic. of the poems inchidtd are what' tliey profess to be, poems of the open air. There are a few songs to which the music has been added. The selection is chiefly remarkable for the prominence given to contemporary noets, There are poems by A. 'E. • Houseman, Walter de la Mare, John Mosefield, Hilaire Belloc,' Charles Dalmon, Laurence Binvon. T. Sturge Moore, Padraic Colm, W. B. Yeats, John Davidson, and Gerald Gould, Nor are the older poets forgotten. Marvell's immortal lyric, "To His Coy.' Mistress,"- is herg, . with Spenser's Trothalamion." Among modern poems one of tho best is Mr Davidson's "Ballad of . a Runnable Stag," but we miss Mr Henry Xewlolts line "Song of Exmoor." Mr-Thomas- has collected a. number of drinking' songs. l Tliev range from the famous, "I cannot eat but- little ineat" of Bishop John Still to a rousing 'chorus on tho merits of Surrey ale'bv Mr Belloc. The book is daintily bound in a blue and gold rover, and contains two fine decorative designs by Mi- William Hyde.