Kipling made a place for himself when he wrote "Barrack-Room Ballads"; the reproduction of the cockney dialect has never been so well done and their humor is inimitable. Read several. In America to-day we have a poet who also does pioneer work—Thomas A. Daly. In his "Madrigali" and "Canzoni" he has used the Italian-American dialect of the streets with a result that is amusing as well as charming.
Gertrude Litchfield, too, has found something new in the dialect spoken by the French Canadians in the northern New England towns. She has written quaintly humorous verses about children. Read "Les Enfants," "De Circus," and "The Spirit of Christmas."
Robert H. Carr has a little volume called "Cow Boy Lyrics," which perpetuate the fast-passing men of the plains. After reading from these, contrast the verses of James Whitcomb Riley with them. Note also among writers of humorous verse Carolyn Wells, Oliver Herford and Gelett Burgess.
VIII—CELTIC POETRY
Ireland has always been the home of romance, and recently it has had a strikingly interesting revival of poetry. William Butler Yeats, originally an artist, has a mystical element in his verse which gives it a sort of unearthly quality. His leading narrative poem is "The Wanderings of Oisin." "Baile and Ailinn" is a lover's tale. "The Fiddler of Dooney" is a simple country story. His work has been called "dream drenched." Make a special study of his play, "Land of the Heart's Desire."
George W. Russell writes verse with much of the same wistful nature as that of Yeats. "Homeward Songs by the Way," and "The Divine Vision" are two of his volumes.
Study also the work of Lady Gregory. Though best known as a playwright she has written interesting verse.
One paper may compare the Celtic verse of to-day with that of the writers of mystical verse in England and America, especially that of Louise Imogen Guiney, and discuss their difference.
IX—POETICAL PLAYS
There are many little plays written to-day in the form of verse, all lovely, poetic in feeling and style, and many of them of great charm. Among others are "The Rose of the Wind," and "The Shoes That Danced," by Anna Hempstead Branch; "The Butterfly," and "Two in Arcadia" by Lucine Finch; four plays called "The Shadow Garden," by Madison Cawein; and "El Dorado," by Ridgely Torrance.