10 FEBRUARY 1923, Page 42

HIGH TIDE. Edited by Mrs. Waldo Richards. (Duck- worth. Os.

net.) It is astonishing in days when poets are reputed to live in factitious gloom that Mrs. Richards could gather together so many contemporary " Songs of Joy." The anthology should certainly keep the reader in good spirits ; perhaps he will mark some of the poems rather with derision than with appreciative pleasure ; but the selections, even those from better-known poets, are at least unconventional. The justice of giving more than half the volume to contemporary American writers may be disputed ; but for our part, in this spate of anthologies, we welcome one which gives us an opportunity of reading poems we have not seen elsewhere.