NEW POETRY
THE POEMS OF WILLIAM WATSON
Edited and arranged, with an Introduction, by J. A. SPENDER.
In 2 Volumes. With Portrait and many new Poems.
Crown 8vo, 9s. net.
Times.—"William Watson is, above all things, an artist who is proud of his calling and conscientious in every syllable that he writes. To appreciate his work you must take it as a whole, for he is in a line with the high priests of poetry, reared, like Ion, in the shadow of Delphic presences and memories, and weighing every word of his utterance before it is given to the world."
Athenæum.—"His poetry is a 'criticism of life,' and, viewed as such, it is magnificent in its lucidity, its elegance, its dignity. We revere and admire Mr. Watson's pursuit of a splendid ideal; and we are sure that his artistic self-mastery will be rewarded by a secure place in the ranks of our poets.... We may express our belief that Mr. Watson will keep his high and honourable station when many showier but shallower reputations have withered away, and must figure in any representative anthology of English poetry.... 'Wordsworth's Grave,' in our judgment, is Mr. Watson's masterpiece ... its music is graver and deeper, its language is purer and clearer than the frigid droning and fugitive beauties of the 'Elegy in a Country Churchyard.'"
Westminster Gazette.—"It is remarkable that when Mr. Watson's poetry directly invites comparison with the poetry of preceding masters his equality always, his incomparable superiority often becomes instantly apparent.... No discerning critic could doubt that there are more elements of permanence in Mr. Watson's poems than in those of any of his present contemporaries.... A very treasury of jewelled aphorisms, as profound and subtle in wisdom and truth as they are consummately felicitous in expression."
Bookman.—"From the very first in these columns we have pleaded by sober argument, not by hysterical praise, Mr. Watson's right to the foremost place among our living poets. The book is ... a collection of works of art, like a cabinet of gems."
Spectator.—"The two volumes will be welcomed by the poet's numerous admirers. There is a pleasure in the possession of a complete edition of a great writer's works.... We must apologise for quoting so copiously, but the book is so full of beautiful things that in his pleasure at seeing them all together the critic is irresistibly tempted to take them out and remind his readers of them separately."