THE POETS IN'PICARDY.*

THE Comic Muse has touched the lips of Mr. E. de Stein, and he, with the modesty of youth, has accepted the caress and determined to make himself worthy of the lady's benevolence by offering to her his tribute of well-wrought light verse. One feels sure that Mr. de Stein is a young, probably a very young man ; he rollicks as only youth can ; and his work has not the high polish and ease that come with maturity and long practice.

He enlists a number of poets for the trenches, and conjures them to write their impressions in their own manner. Shake- speare was struck by the statement, matter of fact and incon- trovertible, in Regimental Orders—" There are many things with which a stew can be thickened "—and without any serious trouble he refitted some lines from one of his earlier works to the exigencies of the camp kitchen :—

" Round about the dixie go, In the dense ingredients throw. Extra bully, every lump Pinched from some forgotten dump ; Biscuits crunched to look like flour, Cabbage sweet and onions sour ; Make the broth as thick as glue, The General will inspect the stew."

The scene ends thus :—

" Voice Within. Help, help, the cooks have fainted in the stew.

Adjutant. They'll not be noticed.

Colonel. Now bath Fortune proved My master. I'll not live a slave to Chance.

(Eats some of the stew and dies.) General. Conscience bath claimed her toll and is content, We'll go inspect another regiment."

The unthinking, uncalculating courage of the Colonel and the calm acquiescence of the General in the decrees of Fate (as applied to others) are in the best tradition not only of Shakespearean tragedy, but of the British Army and the War Office respectively.

Private Robert Burns sings softly of Minnie (a Mortar). Mr. de Stein knows his Burns ; but " daf " for " deef " (deaf)

• Via Pods In Picardy. ByE. de Stein. London: John Murray. EU nd. naLl Is an ugly lapse—or a misprint. The Oilbertian playlet is less successful, and is marred by a brace of horrible Cockney rhymes ; "strata—waiter" and "hoarier—Victoria." Mr. de Stein should take warning from Mr. Gilbert Frankau, a notorious sinner in this respect : he appears to think that Cockney rhymes in light verse are funny ; they are often merely the abhorrent child of laziness.

A well-known war correspondent will doubtless enjoy this appreciation of his keen eye for sentimental " copy " as much as his readers. The Ode begins :— " Behold a solitary figure stands, Silent upon a peak m Picardy, Gazing across the devastated lands And flaming farms of France."

But suddenly " Out of a crumphole creeps a cautious cat Of doubtful temper, true, and far from fat. But what cares He ;—ah, what indeed cares He ? Smiling he pats her as she ambles past— Beach Thomas finds his paragraph at last."

Perhaps the pick of Mr. de Stein's varied basket is a little poem entitled " Chloe," which shows the awful effects of four years of military office work upon a poet :—

" Accept this indent—Sweet—from me—

That all the blessings thou haat earned The Gods may give, (addressed to thee, Repeated unto all concerned).

Soft as the violet new unfurled Thine eyes with gentle kindness speak, And all the roses of the world Report for duty on thy cheek.

And in the morning, ere I rise, The image of my Best Beloved That floats before my waking eyes Is duly noted and approved.

These lines which tell in accents true The hopes that warm, the fears that freeze My love-loin heart, are passed to you For necessary action, please."

Me. de Stein ha7 a happygift of spontaneous fun ; and his Envoi shows that he has also that sense of the tears of things which is seldom lacking in the heart and mind of the humorist.