CURRENT LITERATURE
Tins volume comprises sixteen lectures and essays on the art of poetry and on individual poets. Mr. Drinkwater, in his opening chapter on " The Poet and Communication," attacks Mr. Abercrombie's theory that the artist must, at the time of creation, be conscious of his desired audience, and argues that, though the poet, having finished his work, should not he slothful in finding a market for it, he should in the actual act of writing be concerned only with satisfying himself. In " The Poet and Tradition," Mr. Drinkwater, asserting that " every poet who has achieved unquestionable distinction- has worked in forms that, even at the time of his writing, had a clearly recognisable parentage," differentiates between- legitimate rebellion and mere anarchy. There follow essays on Milton, Shelley and Burns, of which the last is the freshest ; and among other writers examined arc Mr. Masefield,. Mrs.• Meynell, Francis Ledwidge; and Stopford Brooke, of whom- the author maintain& that, had his energies not been diffuSed by a duality of loyalties, he would have been " one of the- greatest men of his age." Mr. Drinkwater, if he is not an original thinker, has a lucid and agreeable manner of restating old truths ; and he writes with commendable honesty to his own convictions.
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