Ardent collectors of Mr. Humbert Wolfe's poetry will welcome a
selection called Early Poems, republished by Basil Blackwell at six shillings. It contains the London Sonnets—that slim book which was the Hesperus of his now deeply constellated sky—and also, " Shylock Reasons with Mr. Chesterton," his first essay in the satirical vein. The book is prefaced with a whimsical essay by the author, half laughter and half tears, in which he likens these poems to " ghostly hansom-cabs, ringing round a midnight corner " into the present day " welter of taxi-cabs, motor-buses, and all the rapid traffic of contemporary violence." He fears that his hansom-cabs will find no fares nowadays ; but that gloomy prophecy we do not share. In those early poems there were many references to Heine. Indeed, we remember that years ago the Spectator's was the first review to speak of Mr. Wolfe as the English Heine. As though to justify us, he has now done translations of Heine's lyrics, luxuriously produced in a limited, signed edition by the Cresset Press at two guineas, entitled " Portrait of Heine."
Previous page
