* The Grand Canyon, and Other Poems. By Henry Van Dyke. (Scribner: $1.25 net.) Poetry of the quality familiar to Dr. Van Dyke’s readers, and fully equal to the poetry in his earlier volumes. To the more serious poems are added several delightfully humorous poems of occasion, among which Ars Agricolaris is a classic of its kind.
* The Flight, and Other Poems. By George Edward Woodberry. (Macmillan $1.25 net.) Mr. Woodberry’s finest volume of verse, in which he gives expression to many moods of intellectual beauty and a philosophy of the ideal akin to Shelley. It contains one lyric, Comrades, absolutely peerless and worthy to be set beside Browning’s The Guardian Angel, if it does not surpass it. These poems are the fruit of a ripe culture and a passionate idealism thoroughly American in its voicing of its message. One of the most completely satisfying volumes of the year.
II. TWENTY-FIVE BOOKS OF POETRY FOR A LARGER LIBRARY.
The List of ten books printed above and the following fifteen titles:—
* In Deep Places. By Amelia Josephine Burr. (Doran: $1.00 net.) Fine dramatic monologues and narrative poems, which represent a great advance over Miss Burr’s previous book. Jehane is a worthy sequel to The Haystack in the Floods by William Morris. Allah is With the Patient and other narrative poems are related in a blank verse of firm yet varied texture. Miss Burr’s dramatic imagination interprets Italy and England in human terms, and travel has afforded her lyric opportunities to which she has responded sensitively and well. With this volume Miss Burr has come to stay.
* The Little King. By Witter Bynner. (Kennerley: $.60 net.) A stark one-act play in verse of swift sure dramatic nerve about the little son of Marie Antoinette. With great economy of material and vivid historic imagination, Mr. Bynner has made The Little King human and poignant in his brief little tragedy.
* Earth Deities, and Other Rhythmic Masques. By Bliss Carman and Mary Perry King. (Kennerley: $1.50 net.) Four masques of earth with Mr. Carman’s old familiar lyric quality directed into fresh and living channels. Each of them would afford a rare delight to an audience, particularly if accompanied by the rhythmic dances which have been designed for them by Mary Perry King.
* Poetical Works. By Edward Dowden. In two volumes. (Dutton: $4.00 net.) A permanent and integral part of English literature. It is gratifying to find tardy justice done at last to the merits of the late Professor Dowden as a poet. Those who care for the work of Mr. Woodberry will find the same qualities in Dowden’s poetry, but in a larger and more authoritative voice. Moreover, he is one of the great nineteenth century sonneteers. His many hymns to intellectual beauty have not an undistinguished line in them, and as a lyric poet his singing quality is infectious. This is the first edition of his poems since 1876, and contains many which have never been collected before. The second volume is a pleasant translation of Goethe’s, The West Eastern Divan. It will not greatly interest admirers of Prof. Dowden’s work, and should be sold separately.
* Borderlands and Thoroughfares. By Wilfrid Wilson Gibson. (Macmillan: $1.25 net.) Mr. Gibson’s fourth volume in three years. Though not equal to his earlier books, it will well repay the lover of poetry. The first section, entitled Borderlands consists of three dramatic dialogues in free verse which aim with some success to be simple, sensuous, and passionate. Hoops is one of Mr. Gibson’s most satisfactory poems. The second section, entitled Thoroughfares comprises shorter poems, many of which are dramatic monologues, and of these Solway Ford and The Gorse represent Mr. Gibson’s best. As we have said elsewhere, Mr. Gibson’s art “satisfies our æsthetic emotions and fulfils our social needs.”
* Aroun’ the Boreens: A Little Book of Celtic Verse. By Agnes I. Hanrahan. (Badger: $1.00 net.) A slight volume of Irish songs equal to the very best by Eva Gore-Booth or Mrs. Hinkson, and tipped with a more delicate art. The volume should be on every shelf beside Moira O’Neill’s Songs of the Glens of Antrim.