714 



REVIEW OF REVIEWS. 



Scpteviher 1, 1913. 



Metliinks when comes the Poet the songless 



plains 

 Are trembling with his nearness and the hills 

 Wave banners of delight while epic waters 

 Murmur a new content and rise to claim 

 Him as their lyric voice, and future time 

 In envy of the present frets for birth. 

 And from the desert silence of great towns. 

 From out the hunger of the choking plains, 

 Upon lone heights where white souls grope for 



peace, 

 Fro;ii far dim shores of unborn centuries. 

 Wherever spirit yearneth unto light, 

 Or dumb lijis crave an utterance divine, 

 In gi'eetiug and in yearning eager arms 

 Reach out to him. Behold the king has come I 



J. C. Chadwick contributes " A Song 

 of Earth " to The Quest. Its prose 

 phrasing and sentiment alike suggest the 

 influence of Whitman. We extract the 

 argument and api3eal : — 



I liave heard men say that scent is scent, 

 and a little shadow passing forgotten aci'o^s 

 tlie nostrils ! 



I have heard men say that sound Ls sound, 

 lud a little beating upon the eai'-drums I 



I have heard men say that sight is sight, 

 and a little flash of lightning striking upon 

 the eye-balls ! 



So they say, my heart! .So they say! 



We know that scent is an unlireakable cord, 

 drawing us to the graves of the Dead ! 



We know that sound is a full-voiced bell, 

 ringing us to the cradles of the Unborn ! 



We know that sight is a flaming torch, 

 beaconing us along the path with the Living ! 



Oil ! Heart of my heart ! I am tired of 

 song ! Come over the furrows of the new- 

 turned earth, for there is work to he done. 

 And the sky is growing deep anrl liln.' aiul 

 star-shot with the night ! 



Life of my Soul ! Come ! 



Tlie following slight but charming 

 little poem, " The Rebellious \''ine," by 

 H. Munro, is worth quoting from Poetry 

 and the Drama : — 



One day, the vine 



That clomb on God's own house, 



Cried, " I will not fjrow," 



And, " I will not grow," 



And, "I unll not grow," 



And " I will not grow." 



So God leaned out His head. 



And said : 



" You need not." Then the vine 



Fluttei-ed its leaves, and cried to all tlie 



winds: 

 'Oh, have I not permission from the Lord? 

 .Vnd may I not begin to cease to grow?" 

 But that wise Gi>d had pondered on the vine 

 Before He made it. 



And, all the while it laboured nut to grow. 

 It grew ; it grew ; 

 And all the time God knew. 



POETRY ITIE Pl'BLIC WANTS. 



Writing in the Book Monthly for 

 June, on the Public and Poetry, Mr. Gil- 

 bert Thomas declares there is not enough 

 to go round of the Muse people want. 



What is wrong with so many of our 

 poets to-day, he says, is that they make 

 ]3oetry an escape from life, instead of 

 a reflection, and an interpretation of life. 

 The)' make poetry a drug to dull their 

 senses to the stern realities of life, in- 

 stead of a food to strengthen them to 

 meet those realities. Mr. Thomas main- 

 tains there is a large public hungry for 

 poetry : — 



Tliore is nothing wrong with the public, 

 except that it is starved. All we want is 

 more jwetry written by pcn-ts who have faced 

 life and lived it, and not evaded it : who are 

 more intent upon voicing the hopes and fears 

 and aspirations of their age than upon describ- 

 ing their own symptoms or admiring their 

 own artistic jxiee ; and who are more cxincerned 

 with simplicity and sincerity of expression 

 than with experiments in rhyme and rhythm. 



WAGNER'S BAYREUTH. 



The Story of Baijreuth, as Told ui the 

 Letters of Richard Wdaner. Translated and 

 edited by Caroline V. Kerr. (Small, Maynard 

 and Co.) 



The origin and development of the 

 idea which has flowered into the Bay- 

 reuth Festival is traced in a new volume 

 of W'agneriana, which is composed al- 

 most exclusively of letters of the great 

 composer on the subject of the musical 

 festival. The English edition, which 

 shows some careful editing, is by Caro- 

 line V. Kerr. The most minute direc- 



tions for the production of the pieces of 

 the festival are given in these letters, 

 showing that Wagner had thought the 

 great conception out to the finish be- 

 fore beginning its visible representa- 

 tion. Bayreuth, says the translator in 

 the introduction, is not merely a local 

 habitation that has furnished a name 

 for the Wagnerian musical drama. " It 

 is also the embodiment of an idea which 

 reaches back more than a quarter of a 

 century in the life of the composer." 



