-they rather pour themselves forth in monologues like Coleridge, or in letters, as here. NEW VOLUMES OF STANDARD POETRY THE COMPLETE WORKS OF EDMUND SPENSER. With an Introduction by THE GREEK POETS. AN ANTHOLOGY. By Nathan Haskell Dole. New THE POEMS OF WILLIAM MORRIS. Selected and edited by Percy Robert Colwell. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co. Whether this be a poetically gifted age or not, it is an age, at least outwardly, very much interested in the study of poetry. How far this interest is genuine and is continued beyond the school and college days, may be debated; but a scanty examination of catalogues shows that poetry and the poets unquestionably constitute the great body of literary study in our college and university courses. We are at least critical, and should be appreciative, of poetical talent; and perhaps as a result, a generation may arise to produce a high order of poetry, unless our interest after all prove to be but an affectation on the part of the teacher, and mere questioning amiability on the part of the pupil. Certainly one might argue that this interest was real from the number of volumes of and about poetry issued from the press for class use, reference, special work, and personal enjoyment. Even our local newspapers fill part of a column in every issue with "Poems You Should Know." All four of the volumes noted above, are intended as convenient and moderately priced editions for the use of the student lover. Professor Trent's introduction to the works of Spenser, constituting a critical summary, is a fresh contribution and estimate of the meaning and importance of Spenser's poetry to us, in spite of recognized drawbacks, and the study contains some finely drawn and happily expressed distinctions. As to the edition itself, the aim has been to preserve the spelling of the original merely transposed to modern type, to give variations from the original editions, to furnish a glossary of obsolete words, and to add a note on Spenser's language and metre. A biographical sketch of Spenser by Mr. J. Walker McSpadden, increases the usefulness of the book. Professor Page's "British Poets of the Nineteenth Century" is a volume intended particularly for college classes, yet ought to be useful to other readers. The fourth volume of Ward's "Poets" is all we have had and for its purpose is still unsurpassed. The present work has wider and fuller selections, but lacks the critical introductions so valuable a feature in Ward's volumes. To compensate for this, however, Professor Page's book has good bibliographies-possibly too general, although some discrimination is made by means of asterisks—which presume the presence and use of a good library. The two works, however, may be made to supplement one another, and the student who wishes can catch the spirit of English poetry of the nineteenth century. There are many excellent features of Professor Page's volume. The selections, which are generously full, are taken from the fifteen leading poets of the century, give as a rule none but complete poems and aim to give all the best of each poet's work. Many long poems are given entire: Byron's "Manfred," Shelley's "Prometheus Unbound," Scott's "Marmion," Coleridge's "Ancient Mariner" and "Christabel," Keats's "Hyperion," two of Tennyson's "Idylls of the King"-"Guinevere" and "Morte d'Arthur"— Browning's "Pippa Passes," Mrs. Browning's "Sonnets from the Portuguese," Arnold's "Sohrab and Rustum," William Morris's "Atalanta's Race." The last two cantos of "Childe Harold" stand apart, and passages from "Don Juan" are necessary exceptions. Other natural exceptions-separable by their nature are the Songs from Tennyson's dramas and the Hymn from "Endymion." And yet a library that presumes the works of reference at all complying with the demands made here may also presume the volumes of poetry, the complete works of these authors. While this volume ought to be and will be helpful as a guide and introduction, yet the real gain is to get away as soon as possible from any book of selections, however wisely put together, and go direct to the full work of the master himself. Nothing can ultimately take the place, even for the student, of personal contact with the spirit in every phase and attitude of the master's work. Mr. Nathan Haskell Dole has long been favorably known as a translator. To get together selections from the best and representative versions of the Greek poets in English is valuable— indeed, at times, more valuable than enlivening. It is interesting to note the scope and variety of the specimens, and one may get a good deal of food for the endless discussion as to the best way of translating a poet. Homer is, of course, chief among his fellows and has seventy-nine pages of translation devoted to him, which include specimens from Chapman's septenary and couplet, Pope's distich, Maguin's eight-lined stanzas to suggest a ballad structure, Gladstone's irregular ode-like form, Dart's hexameter, Tennyson's blank verse and others. The imitation of the Greek spelling is employed, as witness "Alkaios," "Aischylos," etc. The translations cover the entire field of Greek poetry—from Homer to the Sicilian idyllists, Theocritus, Bion, and Moschus, and end with Callimachus, Apollonius Rhodius, and Meleagrus. They are also taken from the most varied sources in our English literature, and some not signed are presumably Mr. Dole's own. On the whole, the lyrical poems seem to be the ones that have most successfully charmed English reproducers. The volume gives a good idea of the spirit and wide character of Greek poetry, and even more, it furnishes a ready conception of the multiplicity and variety of translations from the Greek in our English literature. A good index to the volume is badly needed. The "Poems of William Morris, selected and edited by Percy R. Colwell" is another volume of selections with Bibliography, Introduction, Notes, and Index of titles. Morris the poet is not so generally known as he deserves, and the mention of his name is more frequent in connection with the revival of the arts and crafts movement and with social discussion than as a poet. Yet he is regarded by many lovers of verse as the best teller of tales. in English verse since the death of genial Dan Chaucer more than five hundred years ago. However, since Morris's death and the publication of Mackail's Life, there is also a renewal of interest in Morris's poetical work. The selections here given are taken from the Early Romantic Poems (the "Defense of Guinevere," etc.)-very full, filling eighty-eight pages-a selection of songs from the "Life and Death of Jason," then full selections from "The Earthly Paradise" and "Sigurd the Volsung," and finally many of the "Poems by the Way"-socialistic, romantic and Icelandic. These selections will introduce the reader (all that any book of selections can do) to William Morris, poet, and may be the means of increasing the number of readers and students of Morris's work and teaching in all its phases. SOME NEW NOVELS Edited by Burton E. MR. WADDY'S RETURN. By Theodore Winthrop. Stevenson. New York: Henry Holt & Co. $1.50. There can be little question as to the advisability of giving "Mr. Waddy's Return" to the reading world. We only wish that Mr. Stevenson, himself a well-known magazine and newspaper writer to whom was entrusted the task of revising and editing the manuscript, had seen fit to preface the volume with a sketch of the author. Theodore Winthrop was a distinguished young graduate of Harvard who had already won a place for himself as a writer by his "Cecil Dreeme" before he entered the Civil War. His untimely death in battle is still mourned by those who knew his promise, and "Mr. Waddy's Return" was thus insured a welcome. The book is eminently readable and attractive, and of its several marked qualities of style, one would hesitate to call one even a fault. The spirit of Thackeray, of Dickens, of Miss Austen, hovers over the pages, the Latinisms and Gallicisms of our earlier writers are frequent, a spade is called a spade very simply and straightforwardly, and there is a tightening about the chords of one's heart as he notes again the quaint forms of expression of a generation ago. The editor deserves commendation for his good taste in leaving the matter so evidently in its original form. PORT ARGENT. A Novel. By Arthur Colton. With a frontispiece by Eliot Keen. New York: Henry Holt & Co. $1.50. Arthur Colton is distinctly a writer in whom persons of a certain trend of thought, rather than the indiscriminate mass, would be interested. He cares not so much for an individual character as that the character should represent some movement or principle he has in mind, not so much for a fact or a situation as its signifi cance. "Port Argent" is a town of old civilization and tradition, finding itself suddenly in the throes of modern development. It decided one morning that it had a "boss." Everyone was pleased. "It sounded metropolitan ;" and "Someone said 'We're a humming town'." It had its sensational preacher to whom his converts had said, "You've got no beliefs that I can make head or tail of. Eccentric youth, go ahead!" And he had gone ahead in Port Argent. A talented young engineer, one of Port Argent's own sons, was laying off boulevards, planning parks, erecting bridges. The new spirit is grafted on the old-a sturdy New England common sense and homely humour showing how old and new may come harmoniously together. The many deviations, incidents and sketches, which the author permits himself, connect with a pleasant love story. THE DIVINE FIRE. By May Sinclair. New York: Henry Holt & Co. $1.50. This volume is a study of the character of a man of genius. and of his development amid mental and moral pitfalls: it is divided into four books, each constituting an epoch in his life. Book I, "Disjecta Membra Poetae," gives the origin and early environment of the poet, the fact of his vulgar birth and certain. inherited traits, his growing up in a second-hand book shop, his yielding to the temptations of his class, the almost entire lack of refinement in the influences around him. It is indeed a period of scattering but a mighty gathering together is promised. Book II, "Lucia's Way," introduces an entire change of scene: Keith Richman is sent from his shop to catalogue the library in an English country house. Lucia, a delicate type of refined and cultured womanhood, presides over the perfectly appointed |