No vers libre for Sir Arthur. It is the old style meter with the old style rhyme and the old style powerful lilt to the old style ballad most suitable for recitations. They are all war poems and are: Victrix; Those others; The guards came through; Haig is moving; The guns in Sussex; Ypres; Grousing; The volunteer; The night patrol; The wreck on Loch McGarry; The bigot; The Athabasca trail; Ragtime! Christmas in wartime; Lindisfaire; A parable; Fate.
“The title-piece and others show Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to be a master of evening-paper balladry.”
+ Ath p558 Ap 23 ’20 70w
“It is good British song one finds in this slim little volume of Sir Arthur’s. And it is British all the way through, this little book; British militarily, British presumptuously satisfied with her destiny.” W. S. B.
+ Boston Transcript p4 Ap 21 ’20 400w
“Nothing so good for Friday afternoon readings in public schools has been written since ‘The charge of the light brigade.’”
+ Dial 69:323 S ’20 110w
“While the military expert may pass over many episodes as being non-essential, it is these very episodes which lure the general reader on from page to page.” Walter Littlefield
+ − N Y Times p6 D 19 ’20 380w