20–17904
Mr Lawrence prefaces his collection of new poems with a discussion of the nature of poetry, saying in part, “Poetry is, as a rule, either the voice of the far future, exquisite and ethereal, or it is the voice of the past, rich, magnificent.... The poetry of the beginning and the poetry of the end must have that exquisite quality, perfection which belongs to all that is far off.... But there is another kind of poetry: ... the unrestful, ungraspable poetry of the sheer present.” And it is for this third type of poetry, he continues, that new poetic forms must be forged. Among the poems of the book are: Apprehension; Coming awake; Suburbs on a hazy day; Piccadilly Circus at night; Parliament Hill in the evening; Bitterness of death; Seven seals; Two wives; Autumn sunshine.
“The more stringent their form the better these poems are; and when, as in Phantasmagoria, Mr Lawrence finds a subject suited to his strained and ‘pent-up’ manner, he ‘gets his effect’ very wonderfully.”
+ − Ath p66 F ’19 220w
“Mr Lawrence’s ‘New poems’—like the overwhelming bulk of ‘the rare new poetry’—seems inspired less by any remote touch of divine madness, than by a labored and sophisticated anxiety to exemplify a theory. Mr Lawrence has none of the brilliancy of Miss Lowell, none of the power of Mr Lindsay. His slim new book offers the pathetic spectacle of a shabby manikin pirouetting in caricature of the muse.” R. M. Weaver
− Bookm 52:59 S ’20 880w
Reviewed by Babette Deutsch
Dial 70:89 Ja ’21 380w
“Apart from a brilliant preface, there is scarcely anything in this book which is pitched at the same level of intensity as the best poems in ‘Look, we have come through.’ The touch is somewhat slacker and vaguer, the feeling less fused with the words. ‘New poems’ contains as least one poem which I am almost inclined to set higher than anything Lawrence has ever done. This is the poem called ‘Seven seals.’” J: G. Fletcher