14 DECEMBER 1929, Page 35

Another sample of fine book production is a blank verse

closet drama by John Presland (Noel Douglas, limited edition, 12s. 6d.). It is a work for a few, those intimate eremites of poetry, who have the necessary quietness of mind to enable them to wait for the subtle aroma to arise from works such as this. Like Beddoes' Death's Jestbook, Goethe's Faust, and indeed most poets' dramatic work, it creates types, psycho- logical syntheses, rather than individuals ; a lofty but archaic procedure not attractive to the modern taste for personality and the human touch at all costs.

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