POETS AND POETRY.
MR. HARVEY'S VERSE.*
MR. HARVEY has drunk at the same well as Mr. Harold Monro,
whose delightful pieces of realism and pseudo-realism, " The
Dog " and " Man Carrying a Bale," were so much admired in The Georgian Poetry Book. Alas! in his volume, Ducks, and other Verses, Mr. Harvey seems to lack the power of self-criticism even more than do most poets. For example, he can write verses like the following, verses which the present writer believes he is not alone in thinking merely funny :— " I want the great conception first,
And after that the fine technique Alone enabling art to speak, And lacking which the best is worst."
But what is the reader's astonishment if he has lighted first upon this gem, and has, as he supposes, "known what to think," when he reads " Ducks," the first poem in the book. The poem in full is almost entirely admirable and quite entirely delightful, and if, judging from an extract, the reader does not agree with this finding, we would make bold to assure him that he would do so had we space to quote the whole poem. Also be it said that there is good poetic precedent. Did not Chaucer love ducks ?- "From troubles of the world I turn to ducks, Beautiful comical things Sleeping or curled
• Ducks, and oast Verses. By F. W. Harvey. London : Sidgnick and Jackson. Ms. net.]
Their heads beneath white wings By water cool,
Or finding curious things
To eat in various mucks Beneath the pool, Tails uppermost or waddling Sailor-like on the shores Of ponds, or paddling —Left ! right !—with fanlike feet Which are for steady oars When they (white galleys) float Each bird a boat Rippling at will the sweet Wide waterway.
When God had finished the stars and whirl of coloured suns He turned His mind from big things to fashion little ones ; Beautiful tiny things (like daisies) He made, and then He made the comical ones in case the minds of men Should stiffen and become Dull, humourless and glum, And so forgetful of their Maker be
As to take even themselves—quite seriously."
But when he is old and famous Mr. Harvey will have to print a most severely pruned " Authoritative Edition " of his work.
Previous page
