A Great Poet
Louisa BOGAN has been writing and publishing for over twenty years, but she has made no great splash, being largely ignored in her own country, the United States, and unknown in England. Some of her very virtues have worked against her popularity, for—while she is properly aware of the importance of her subjects—she is unassuming and unsensational. And, such is the careless way we judge unless we can prop up our reading with
biographical titbits or some apparatus of 'para- dox' or 'tension' or whatnot, that it is very easy to class her after a single reading as merely cor- rect: minor, cold, and academic. However, her poems—like any good poems—deserve more than one reading : she is by no means lacking in pas- sion, but she never pretends about it and she never says more than she means.
No longer burn the hands that seized
Small wreaths from branches scarcely green.
Wearily sleeps the hardy, lean
Hunger that could not be appeased.
The eyes that opened to white day Watch cloud that men may look upon: Leda forgets the wings of the swan; Danae has swept the gold away.
This is a short poem,.but it is a perfect example of her unhysterical attitude and of her method. It consists of three statements in a more or less narra- tive sequence, leading up to the last two lines, which—economically, and with a terrific punch— combine the last stage of the narrative, the logical consequence of the other statements, and the author's own judgment.
Miss Bogan is always in control. Though she is a woman poet, she scarcely ever relapses into the 'naked sensitive' tradition we are all so tired of. She writes with seriousness, precision, and elo- quence, and is at her best on the subject of the disastrous consequences of just that uncontrolled emotion one has come to consider the main theme of 'poetesses.' She is at the same time capable of variety—as one can see by comparing the poem I have quoted with 'Hypocrite Swift,' the very funny 'Several Voices out of a Cloud,' or some of the other epigrams; but to convince anybody that she is a great poet—and a great poet, after all, is someone who has written one or more great poems—I would ask him to read 'Kept,' The
Alchemist,' The Mark,' and a few others her power is shown to its full extent. Her lishers are to be congratulated on introducit into England.
THOM
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