19 MAY 1923, Page 21

The Chapbook.

The April and the May issues of Mr. Harold Monro's Chapbook afford excellent material for those who generalize and make comparisons. In the April number Mr. Alfred Kreymborg collects several unpublished poems by modem American writers. He confesses in a rather delirious preface that some of the more established poets have been unable to contribute ; but this, he believes, is not wholly unfortunate : it has allowed him to make room for younger and less-known poets. We were most attracted, however, by the poems of writers whom we already knew—in especial by those of Mr. Robert Frost and Mr. Conrad Aiken. The newer poets seem feverishly anxious to be rebellious and completely at a loss in searching for something to rebel against. In the May number we have poems by English writers. It is enlivened by two idiomatic, neat, and personal poems by Mr. W. H. Davies, and two formless but vigorous poems by Miss Edith SitwelL In addition, Captain Ford Madox Ford publishes an alert and sensitive parody of the modern manner in poetry.