MORE ESSAYS ON BOOKS.
More Essays on Books. By A. Clutton-Brock. (Methuen. 6s. net.)—In this second collection of essays Mr. Clutton-Brock continues to pay homage to various personages on the slopes of Olympus. He is equally appreciative of Meredith and of Marvell. George Herbert ho finds " as clever as Browning," and far less old-fashioned in thought than many poets of the last two centuries. Few poets, indeed, have shown more control of detail than Herbert ; he is a perfect draughtsman. In another essay the verse and prose of Poe are examined—not his inferior and popular work, but The Sleeper and the little-read Power of Words and the few other examples of his beat work which alone entitle hint to fame. Under the apt heading " A New Planet " Mr. Clutton-Brock writes of Chinese poetry, now made known to us by Mr. Waley's remarkable translations. " European poets have the ambition to make an orchestra out of language ; but the Chincsc seem to play on a penny whistle, and then suddenly, with a shy smile, to draw the most wonderful thin music out of it." He finds in their poetry "a strange power of making us ignore language as if the pure idea happened to us when we read it." Perhaps, as he suggests, the young poets of to-day will find their future in the poetry of ancient China, and the poetic themes and poetic language which have long dominated European verse will give place to the " quiet and exquisite " talk of the Chinese. This would not be a slavish imitation of the past since to us Chinese poetry is very modern and very much alive ; indeed, it seems the only means of escape for those who, tired of fancy dress, wish "to speak like ordinary men and yet to remain poets."
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