* The Sea is Kind. By T. Sturge Moore. (Houghton-Mifflin: $1.50 net.) This is the first collection issued in America of the poems of an English craftsman of great distinction and power, whose chief weakness is an over-proportion of intellectual substance. He lacks the glow of beauty, and perhaps of beauty’s realization, but his work is literary craftsmanship of the highest order, and his metrical experiments are almost as significant as those of Mr. Bridges. Altogether the artistic product of a richly stored mind without aspiration or imaginative vision.
* Saloon Sonnets: With Sunday Flutings. By Allen Norton. (Claire-Marie: $1.25 net.) A volume less bizarre than its title implies. The sonnets bear evidence of ueberkultur, but occasionally surprise the reader by their pleasant lyric charm. They do not lack virility and enthusiasm.
The Sister of the Wind. By Grace Fallow Norton. (Houghton-Mifflin: $1.00 net.) A new volume by the author of Little Gray Songs from St. Joseph’s which is most disappointing. In a poet of Miss Norton’s quality, it is inevitable that there should be always something to repay the reader, but this volume is singularly unrepresentative of Miss Norton’s real powers.
Celtic Memories. By Norreys Jephson O’Conor. (Lane: $1.00 net.) A first volume of some promise by a recent graduate of Harvard, whose Irish feeling is drawn directly from experience, but whose expression is still drawn chiefly from books.
* The Ebon Muse and Other Poems by Léon Laviaux. Englished by John Myers O’Hara. (Smith and Sale: $2.00 net.) Translations from the work of a young Creole poet, glorifying the “fille de couleur” in love poetry of original beauty. Differing from Latin and Oriental passion alike, it reveals a type of feminine beauty which is wholly new to Northern readers.
* An Epilogue To the Praise of Angus and Other Poems. By Seumas O’Sullivan. (Norman, Remington Co.: $.75 net.) A thin sheaf of delicate poems by one of the foremost poets of the New Ireland. Akin in certain aspects of his vision to “Æ,” who does not surpass him, his verses have more singing quality, and he is a successful experimenter in various new verse forms which reproduce cadences in ancient Irish music.
* One Woman to Another, and Other Poems. By Corinne Roosevelt Robinson. (Scribner: $1.25 net.) Dramatic monologues and sonnets of sharply etched lines whose competence is unquestionable, and a more satisfying reality of human feeling than in Mrs. Robinson’s previous volume. The volume will give much intellectual and some emotional pleasure, and in two or three lyrics the poet has achieved high ground.
* Beyond the Breakers, and other Poems. By George Sterling. (Robertson: $1.25 net.) This is Mr. Sterling’s first thoroughly satisfying book. It includes the superb “Ode on the Centenary of the Birth of Robert Browning,” and poems of such importance as “Tidal, King of Nations,” “Willy Pitcher,” “The Mission Swallows,” “Past the Panes,” and “You Never Can Tell.” We must call particular attention to the vision of the noble ode entitled “Beyond the Sunset.” With less opulent diction and heady imagination than Mr. Sterling’s earlier volumes, Beyond the Breakers shows a disciplined vision expressed with a disciplined technique.
Open Water. By Arthur Stringer. (Lane: $1.00 net) A collection of delicate pictures expressing many frail and drifting moods phrased in vers libre not yet quite sure of itself. The volume contains much quiet beauty, and is prefaced by a plea for vers libre of considerable documentary and critical value. A volume which the lover of poetry can scarcely neglect.
Idylls of Greece. Third Series. By Howard V. Sutherland. (Fitzgerald: $1.00 net) Modest idylls of Greek fable telling with some passages of beauty the tales of “Idas and Marpessa,” “Rhodanthe,” “Sappho and Phaon,” and “Œnone.” The blank verse, though not firm, is of well-wrought texture, and Mr. Sutherland expresses feelingly the fleeting beauty of Pagan love and Hellenic landscape. Mr. Sutherland’s three volumes merit more attention than they have received.