19 DECEMBER 1925, Page 21

Our copy of Mr. Thomas Hardy's new volume of poems,

Human Shows, Far Fantasies, Songs and Trifles (MacMillan), has now reached us. At the first glance we should say that perhaps half a dozen poems arc among Mr. Hardy's best.

The awkwardness of gait and the mechanical plot-making in many of the others do not endear them to us ; indeed, sometimes they are exasperating ; but we would • willingly pay still more for the half-dozen.

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