Mr. Monk Gibbon in his For Darns to Peck At
(Gollancz, Os.) is a wayside companion with a touch of innocence about him that reminds one of Barnaby Rudge. His sense of values is
not that of the world at large. He loves the gentler compan- ionships which do not involve heavy social responsibilities. They must be general and impersonal, none more important
than another, so :-
"That every woman, man, or child I meet, is more to me than wine."
He believes in. the " moth's kiss first," and then, when the second kiss of passion and the third kiss of duty should follow
—farewell, he is off and away, for :—
" He who loves beauty wisely
Loves her least touch ; She can scourge him with arrows Who loves too much ; Who turns aside, who lingers, Who leaves the throng, She can scourge him with scorpions Who loves too long."
It can be seen that here is a personality valuable because of its
elusiveness, and the reader can feel it in these poems with that pleasure which tingles in one's veins when spring showers sting the face. • • • •
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