The Battle of the Bays.
Eighth Edition.
Price 3s. 6d. net. Fcap. 8vo. Price $1.25.
SOME PRESS OPINIONS.
“The new ‘Rejected Addresses’ of Mr. Owen Seaman are quite worthy to be ranked with the classic volumes of Horace and James.... The thing is done as well as it could be.... This little volume is merum sal.”––The Spectator.
“Mr. Kipling has never been so nimbly caught before, for Mr. Seaman has the art to reproduce his flute-notes as well as his big drum.... Several of the miscellaneous pieces are among the very best humourous poetry of this generation. We have laughed at nothing lately more than at ‘Ars Postera,’ at ‘A New Blue Book,’ at ‘To a Boy-Poet of the Decadence,’ and at ‘To Julia in Shooting Togs.’ But, after all, Mr. Seaman’s masterpiece up to date is certainly ‘To the Lord of Potsdam.’ ... This will live, or we are greatly mistaken, among the most effective examples of historical satire-lyric.”––The Saturday Review.
“It is certainly remarkable, in our dearth of great poetry, how good of its sort the satiric verse of our day is––so good, in fact, that nothing but the best will serve, and even the best, like Mr. Seaman’s, which in the day when Sir George Trevelyan was a wit would have taken people’s breath away, is apt to be treated as mere journalism.... But really it is the most characteristic expression of our time, using the accustomed forms of verse to point the neatest criticisms and the slyest of epigrams.... Mr. Seaman’s humourous imitation of Mr. Swinburne, Sir Edwin Arnold, Sir Lewis Morris, Mr. Kipling, and the rest, is in every case very funny.”––St. James’s Gazette.
“The book abounds in excellent fooling and really wholesome satire, the ingenuity and felicity of verse and expression giving it likewise a high artistic value.... Quips and cranks of audacious wit, strokes of a humour always sane and healthy, waylay the reader incessantly, and leave him no peace for laughter.”––The Westminster Gazette.
“Mr. Seaman must be tired of being compared to Calverley and J. K. S., but he is of their company, and, what is more, on their level. ‘The Battle of the Bays’ ... bristles with points; it is brilliant, ... and it has that easy conversational flow which is the one absolutely necessary characteristic of good humourous poetry.... One charm of writing such as Mr. Seaman’s is that it makes us feel quite obliged to poets whom we have never admired for being so good to parody.”––Pall Mall Gazette.
“Mr. Owen Seaman has a very neat talent for parody.... The ‘Ballad of a Bun’ is exceedingly funny, and ought to make even Mr. John Davidson laugh.... All the imitations are good.”––The Times.
“His versatility and bright and ready wit are conspicuous in all his work. As a parodist he is second to none, not even to Mr. Calverley, if we may take the word of the reviewers.... Mr. Seaman cracks the whip with consummate skill, and applies it with such naughty precision, that even his victims must find it difficult to withhold their admiration.”––The National Observer.
BY THE SAME AUTHOR.
Horace at Cambridge
New and Revised Edition.
Price 3s. 6d. net. Fcap. 8vo. Price $1.25.
“To every university man ... this book will be a rare treat. But in virtue of its humour, its extreme and felicitous dexterity of workmanship both in rhyme and metre ... it will appeal to a far wider public.”––Punch.
“We very cordially recommend Mr. Seaman’s book ... to all who are likely to care for verse which is not unworthy to be ranked with the efforts of Calverley the immortal.”––The World.
“Mr. Seaman manages his ingenious metres with unfailing skill.”––The Athenæum.
“A genial cynic with a genuine smack of Bon Gaultier.”––St. James’s Gazette.
“The humour is bright and spontaneous.”––The Times.
“Mr. Seaman’s book is never slipshod; it has the neatness, the precision, the sparkle of its Latin namesake.”––The Spectator.
Tillers of the Sand