POET.S AND POETRY.
THE CHAPBOOK.* IT is pleasant to see a number of the Chapbook' again. For six months no -volume has been published, but now with print and • (10 The chapbook. A Monthly Miscellany publLsbed by The Poetry Book- shop. us. Sd.1—(2) The Poetry Review. Published by Erskine MacDonald. Published 134-monthly. Od.]-----(3) A Long Spoon and the Devil. By Henry Savage. London: Cecil Palmer. Ns.] paper a little down in price, the series has been started again. This time the volume contains nothing but verse, chiefly by less known writers, though Mr. W. IL Davies, Mr. Lascelles. Aber- crombie and Miss Mew contribute. One of the most agreeable poems in the book is called " The Happy Ducks," and. is by Miss. Camilla Doyle.
Mr. Lascelles Abercrombie's poem is called " Ryton Firs," and, though it contains some pleasant lines, does not suit his temperament, with its quiet landscape effects. He seems constantly to try to reproduce a visual impression which, after all, eludes him. Consequently, the poem belongs to that numerous class of which we do not take much note because it is almost impossible to read them attentively. When we have achieved a reluctant concentration there is a good deal to admire.
The Poetry Reviews has just celebrated a thirteenth birthday, so surely establishing a record of longevity for such a publication. It is a magazine which has been of great use to a number of poets whose names are now known in two continents, but whose work was first printed in the Poetry Review. Perhaps a certain mildness characterizes the verse which it prints in the current number, but some of the critical articles, both upon old and' new verse, are interesting.
Mr. Cecil Palmer publishes a book of parodies.' As amusing as anything in his book is Mr. Savage's title page :—
A LONG SPOON AND THE DEVIL Being Fish Quaint and Queer From the Spoon River The Property of Edgar Lee Masters Poached by
Henry Savage.
Some of the poems are rather obscure, and the reader will pro- bably feel on the whole that hiadesire for a complete set has made Mr.. Savage write a rather larger number of his " Spoon " parodies. than " the urge to write " warranted. But some of them are exceedingly funny. Tom Trouble extols the delights of the next world in the fourth dimension :—
" There are thousands of newcomers pushed each day through
the letter-box To tell us of anything new. Mrs. Quin Asters (late of Peckham) was informing me only yesterday That Shaw had written another book
Called Back to Malthusia,
And the public were so enthusiastic about it They created him Lord Dawson. . . ."
A. Wtteratts.Etaas.
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