MACMILLAN & CO., LIMITED
St. Martin’s Street, London
1922
Mr. Gibson’s new work is a tragic drama in blank verse, concerned with three generations of a family of Northumbrian shepherds. The title, ‘Krindlesyke,’ is taken from the name of the lonely cottage on the fells where they live and the incidents of the story pass.
While ‘Krindlesyke’ is not in dialect, it has been flavoured with a sprinkling of local words; but as these are, for the most part, words expressive of emotion, rather than words conveying information, the sense of them should be easily gathered even by the south-country reader.
Some Press Opinions
The Poetry Review.—‘A new book by Mr. Wilfrid Gibson must always arouse interest, for his genius has been displayed in such varied forms that one can only wonder what new development, what new blending of his great qualities may appear.... In “Krindlesyke” he may be said to have astounded us all by achieving the seemingly impossible combination of the diverse qualities he has hitherto displayed separately.... Ezra Barrasford and his sons appear, amidst the wreck they have made, wonderfully convincing characters.... The women are no less convincing—good-hearted, toil-worn Eliza, driven to “nagging” by her husband and sons; Bell Haggard, a truly wonderful study; Judith, who has learned much wisdom from bitter experience. As to the language, it is wonderfully true to country life and character.’
The Daily News.—‘There is much breadth of vision and much of that bitter wisdom that is yet half beauty in this poem.’
Mr. Laurence Binyon in The Observer.—‘“Krindlesyke” is at once the most ambitious and the strongest work that Mr. Wilfrid Gibson has given us. It is a dramatic poem, firmly designed, and carried out with abundant energy and power.’
The Times Literary Supplement.—‘The poet of deep and self-forgetful feeling must, we venture to think, survive when mannered muses are forgotten. Mr. Gibson is such a poet.... It is his distinction to belong to the school of Wordsworth in an age which is generally too clever, hasty, and conscious to wait upon “the still sad music of humanity.” ... “Krindlesyke” is a notable achievement of the sympathetic imagination.’