+ − Social Hygiene 6:590 O ’20 260w
“It does seem to me that the book might more appropriately have been called ‘A woman.’ For the rest, the book is perfervid in a way that we do not quite like in America, perhaps because we are not wholly acclimated to it. It has pages of unusual beauty, and a high degree of unity and directness.”
+ − World Tomorrow 3:350 N ’20 350w
MASEFIELD, JOHN. Enslaved. *$2.50 Macmillan 821
20–13322
The long narrative poem of the title depicts courage born of love and begetting the brotherhood of man even in the untamed. A fair damsel is carried off by a pirate galley into the captivity of a khalif’s harem. Her lover follows into slavery to rescue her. He does so with the aid of a brother slave who must kill a traitor to accomplish their purpose. Recaptured and brought before the khalif they are set free because their tale causes human stirrings in the hawk breast of the latter. The other poems are: The hounds of hell; Cap on head; Sonnets; The passing strange; Animula; The Lemmings; Forget; On growing old; Lyric.
+ Ath p718 My 28 ’20 60w
“It seems to us that Mr Masefield’s first business is to regain control of his words; and that he can only do this by deliberately attempting a subject that bristles with psychological nuances, and insisting that his language shall accommodate itself to them. Otherwise we fear he will never succeed in expressing that elusive beauty which he sees, but which at present comes to us only in assertion or in fitful gleams through the interstices of an opaque style.” J. M. M.
+ − Ath p823 Je 25 ’20 2300w + Booklist 17:22 O ’20