MODES AND MOODS

Confessio Juvenis : Collected Poems. By Richard Hughes. (Matto and Wincing. 6s.)

Ala. ADrOcies muse, if it cannot boast great originality, has those qualities of spontaneity, sincerity, and sympathy without which the cleverest writers labour but in vain. His work is inspired by tenderness and pity, and the humours and tragedies of the London streets—especially the poorer streets, for he is always the champion of the " under-dog." With his ibounding charity he can tolerate all things save intolerance, in confronting which, as in this poem entitled " The Dead Lion," he shows a robust indignation :— -" Now you are dead and none can hope or fear

That you may help or harm him any more, -• Somo of your friends dismiss you with a sneer, Who flattered you in fear or hope before. They boldly speak the thoughts they only said In prudent whispers, then, behind your back, For seeing you are harmless, being dead, They have the courage now they used to lack.

I, too, could bear your failings if I would And gloat upon the weakness of the strong You were too human to be wholly good, Too wholly human never to go wrong.

But when I salve the flotaszn memory brings, .

Your words and acts that I remember best Are little gracious, friendly, fragrant things-. And, so remembering, I forget the rest."

Miss- Letts, in her new volume, reveals the same warm- heartedness, the same delicacy of fancy and tunefulness of

rhythm that have characterized her earlier poems of the hills and lanes of Ireland. She is at her best in her ballads of the odd roadside characters whom she meets. But you cannot open her book at random without coming upon some pleasant lilt or " conceit "

" All day,

From Bray to Donnybrook, From Donnybrook to Bray The motor cars scurry.

The loud horns say-

' I'm in a hurry. Get out of my way

' I must get to Donnybrook.' I must get to Bray. "

Mrs. de Bary's many admirers will welcome a new and re- vised edition, in pocket form, of The Porch of Paradise. This long poem, nobly conceived and executed in blank verse of sometimes lyrical quality, is an attempt to picture the world as it might be if we lived in the spirit of the Lord's Prayer. There is plenty of scope for adventure in Mrs. de Bary's Utopia. " But the chief explorer is the single soul," she says.

Mr. Hughes makes a less simple and direct appeal. But there is no question about his many and varied, if elusive, gifts. He is subtle, ironical, rebellious, at times uncannily clever, and always characteristically modern in his desire to " disturb the indolent regurgitations of the nature poet."

For the remaining books on our list a few lines must suffice. The Collected Poems of Alexander Steven, a young Englishman

who died recently in Australia, express melodiously an invalid's passion for solitude and the consolations of Nature. Alpine Lyrics reveal a robust and individual appreciation of beauty. The Curse of Obo tells a tale of love and tragedy founded upon an old legend of Benin. Pattering Feet is a book of childhood verses in the Stevenson vein ; while Songs of a Fuzzy-Top, written in " Pidgin-English," is a clever story of the South Sea Islands by a writer who has long lived there.