The Faggot—

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1081, 19 September 1930, Page 14

The Faggot —

The Bookman’s Bundle THE niembry of Henry Carey, the author of “Sally in Our Alley,” and “God Save the King” has recently been honoured by the publication of a collected edition of his poems. Carey was born in, or about., 1687, aud he committed suicide in 1743. Writing of his poetry in the “Observer,” J. C. Squire says: “Nobody can maintain that Carey was one of those poets born out of due time, who will only come into their full farqe after the lapse of centuries. That happened to Herrick; it happened in a measure to Donne; Carey, for all the merit of his few successful pieces, is not in that category. ‘God Save the King,* when one comes to think of it, is not notable either for the profanity of its thought or for the perfection of its craftsmanship; aud ‘Sally in Our Alley* succeeds entirely by virtue of its simple sentiment and its tune, and is no evidence of any great poetic faculty. Both poems, however, do attest this: a close contact with popular sentiment. Carey lived in an age when poetry jsjrown urban and urbane, had lost contact with the English tradition, as regards both form and content. The old English delight in lyricism and lyrical variety had been lost by the fashionable poets, and the heroic couplet, polished to a rather monotonous smoothness, was used as a medium for the criticism of manners, for .didacticism, for the stately chronicling of history, for formal and erudite panegyric, and for artificial pastoralism which, confronted by Sally and her 'prentice lad, would have turned her into a nymph and him Into her swain. There were charms about it all, but it was very far removed.”

The Oxford University Press, by arrangement with John Lane and Martin Seeker, will publish in its series of Oxford Poets the poetical. work of Laseelles Abercrombie. The book will contain the plays. With the exception of Robert Bridges,, whose poems appeared there in 1912, Abercrombie is the only poet to be included in this series during his own lifetime. Inclusion in this august series is an admission that Abercrombie’s work has classic quality, yet his name is often overlooked in critical surveys of contemporary poetry. He is 49 years of age and is professor of English literature at the University of Leeds. His first volume “Interludes” was published in 1908, and his most recent work was “Twelve Idylls,” published two years ogo. He has written a study of Thomas Hardy, and has published numerous books on prosodj- and poetry in general. 4v ¥r A new poem by Humbert Wolfe reprinted from the “Week-end Review’.” It’s title is “Cradle Song for a Murderer”: Swing dark, swing death. You need no longer tear The agonising day; the night is here. No need to wonder now, and none to pray. Prayer and the need of prayer have passed away; Beat slowljer, heart, he very gentle, breath. Let nil go softly now ; swing dark, swing death ! Swing death, swing dark! There is a curBetween the utmost midnight and the dawn; Lay down your head, and though the couch be shallow, Deep will the blanket be, and soft the pillow. The dying taper quenches, on the spark. Lie down to sleep at last; swing death, swing dark: Swing dark, swing death! Now all accounts are paid. All debt.? acquitted; be no more afraid. Men have done all they can. their worst and best; Find now in God. or In the darkness, rest; Cease beating, heart, at last be quiet, breath; It is nil ended now; swing dark, swing death ! “An Appeal to the Clergy of the Church of Scotland,” a pamphlet written by R. L. Stevenson in 1875, and published at threepence, was sold recently at Sotheby’s to the -American book dealer, Dr Rosenbach, for £BBO. The author’s name was written on the title page, and there were a few marginal notes in his hand. It was also inscribed, “Rev. Dr Stevenson, Oxford Terrace.” *• 4* * A long-awaited collected edition of the works of Bernard Shaw is about to make its appearance in 30 volumes. It will be published by Messrs Constable, and the price will probably be one guinea a volume. Hitherto unpublished material will be Included in the edition, and the first volume will be an unpublished novel “Immaturity,” which was written in 1879. Letters and pamphlets written during the Great War will be assembled in another volume. and in addition there will be a number of new prefaces.