WILLIAM STANLEY BRAITHWAITE
In a review of this writer's poetry we have to consider especially the two collections, "Lyrics of Life and Love," and "The House of Falling Leaves," and the poems that have more recently appeared in the Atlantic, Scribner's, and other magazines. It is to be hoped that before very long he will publish a new edition of his poems. The earlier volumes are out of print, and a new book could contain the best of them, as well as what has appeared more recently. "Lyrics of Life and Love" embodied the best of the poet's early work. The little book contains eighty pages, and no one of the lyrics takes up more than two pages, twenty in fact being exactly eight lines in length. This appearance of fragility, however, is a little deceptive. While Keats and Shelley are constantly evident as the models in technique, the yearning of more than one lyric reflects the deeper romantic temper. The bravado and the tenderness of the old poets are evident again in the two Christmas pieces, "Holly Berry and Mistletoe," and "Yule-Song: A Memory":
The trees are bare, wild flies the snow,
Hearths are glowing, hearts are merry—
High in the air is the Mistletoe,
Over the door is the Holly Berry.
Never have care how the winds may blow,
Never confess the revel grows weary—
Yule is the time of the Mistletoe,
Yule is the time of the Holly Berry.
* * * * *
December comes, snows come,
Comes the wintry weather;
Faces from away come—
Hearts must be together.
Down the stair-steps of the hours
Yule leaps the hills and towers—
Fill the bowl and hang the holly,
Let the times be jolly.
"The Watchers" is in the spirit of Kingsley's "The Three Fishers":
Two women on the lone wet strand—
(The wind's out with a will to roam)
The waves wage war on rocks and sand,
(And a ship is long due home.)
The sea sprays in the women's eyes—
(Hearts can writhe like the sea's wild foam)
Lower descend the tempestuous skies,
(For the wind's out with a will to roam.)