+ − Review 2:395 Ap 17 ’20 1200w The Times [London] Lit Sup p699 N 27 ’19 160w
BYNNER, WITTER (EMANUEL MORGAN, pseud.). Canticle of Pan and other poems. *$2 Knopf 811
20–9070
Among the poems of this book are the Canticle of praise, written in celebration of the ending of the war and presented at the Greek theater in Berkeley, California, in December, 1918, and the Canticle of Pan, delivered as the Phi Beta Kappa poem at the University of California in June, 1917, and the Canticle of Bacchus, also presented in California. Among the shorter poems are a number of translations from the Chinese. Titles of others are: Youth sings to the sea; The wild star; Vintage; Gipsying; Pittsburgh; A song in the grass; The swimmer; The desert; On leaving California; Away from California; Rain; Night; News of a soldier.
Booklist 17:60 N ’20
“Witter Bynner, in his ‘A canticle of Pan,’ is more of a ventriloquist than a poet. He speaks in too many voices, and on too wide a range of topics to have achieved mastery in any manner or distinction in any style. Mr Bynner’s volume is singularly unauthentic: it is an anthology of imitations (none of them particularly effective) of most of the known manners of prosody.” R. M. Weaver
− Bookm 52:62 S ’20 700w + Boston Transcript p8 F 12 ’19 500w
“In these canticles Mr Bynner has evolved a medium admirably suited for community expression, dealing with the large events of the world. In a sense these are experimental, and Mr Bynner, while giving them a certain poetic merit, has not made them distill his finest poetic spirit. His lyric note is, at its best, one of the purest among present-day poets.” W. S. B.
+ − Boston Transcript p6 Jl 3 ’20 1150w