No More Learning

294
Krutch, Joseph Wood. Edgar Allan Poe ; a study in genius.
Knopf, 1926.
Exceptionally intelligent and well-written, reconstructing from old theories a new idea of the poet. —A. L. A. catalog, 1926.
295
Lang, Andrew. Essays in little. Scribner, 1901.
296
Legouis, Emile. The early life of Wordsworth, 1770-1798; a
study of The Prelude; tr. by J. W. Matthews, with a prefa tory note by Leslie Stephen. Dent, 1921.
291
I can speak only in terms of the deepest admiration
yond praise. It has been perfectly translated. —George McLean Harper.
297
Geoffrey Chaucer; tr. by L. Lailavoix. Dutton, 1913.
An English version of one of the best introductions to the study of Chaucer. —Booklist.
298
Lord, Louis Eleazer. Aristophanes; his plays and his influ
ence. (Our debt to Greece and Rome) Marshall Jones, 1925.
Discusses the origin of Greek Comedy. , the Greek theater and the plays of Aristophanes and traces, later, his influence during the Renais sance and in modern literatures.
. . .
it is be
46 POETRY AND POETS
299
Lowell, Amy.
John Keats. 2v. Houghton, 1925.
A great and beauitful task. She has written not only by far the best biography of John Keats, the most complete, the most accurate, the most understanding, but she has written one of the best biographies in the English language. —Richard Le Gallienne.
300
Tendencies in modern American poetry. Macmillan, 1917.
She has chosen to consider the work of six poets only, each of which she regards as a typical strand of that braid of woven strands which any poetic movement must needs be like. They have one thread of color in common —revolt against the recent past of poetry.
301
Lowell, Tames
1890.
302
Russell. Literary essays. 4v. Houghton,
Lowes, John Livingston. The road to Xanadu; a study in the ways of the imagination. Houghton, 1927.
A fascinating and highly significant study of The ancient mariner, Kubla Khan and the workings of the imagination that produced them. . . . Marked by the wide reading, free from all pedantry, that gives to each chapter something new and strange; by the flood of light it casts on two of the greatest poems in our language and above all by its deep and absorbing human interest. —Yale Review.
303
Lynd, Robert. Books and authors. Putnam, 1923.
304
Mackail, John William. Latin literature. Scribner, 1895.
Fit to arouse the reader's enthusiasm by its glowing appreciation. — Grant Showerman.
305
Lectures on Greek poetry, new ed. Longmans, 1926.
The lucidity of its style and the consistent treatment of the poetry of Greece as a living thing give the volume interest. —N. Y. Times.
306
The springs of Helicon; a study in the progress of
English poetry from Chaucer to Milton. Longmans, 1909.
The subject suggests that all European poetry is connected with and indebted to Greece; and that English poetry especially is indebted to the Grecian stream from which it has borrowed, directly or indirectly at three turning points of its development — Chaucer, Spenser, Milton. — Catholic World.
307
308
STUDIES OF THE CHOSEN POETS 47 Studies of English poets. Longmans, 1926.
Virgil and his meaning to the world of to-day.
debt to Greece and Rome) Marshall Jones, 1922.
(Our
An eloquent study of the significance of Virgil to the twentieth cen
tury. — A. L. A. catalog, 1926.
309
William Morris ; life and letters. 2v. Longmans, 1899.
Besides being a storehouse upon which all writers on Morris must draw and remain thankful debtors, this is one of the most beautiful biographies in the language. —John Drinkwater.
310
Malory, Sir Thomas. Le morte d'Arthur. 2v. Dutton, 1906.
311
(Everyman)
Morte d'Arthur ; book of King Arthur and of his noble knights of the Round Table; ed. by Sir Edward Strachey. Macmillan, 1897.
It was at the close of the age of chivalry that an English Knight, Sir
Thomas Malory, conceived the idea of rewriting the Arthurian story in his own language. He infused new and vigorous life into the ancient tales and clothed them in fine, simple, sonorous prose.
312
The boy's King Arthur; Sir Thomas Malory's history of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table; ed. for boys, with an introd. by Sidney Lanier, illus. by N. C. Wyeth. Scribner, 1917.
Mr. Lanier abridged the medieval story, modernized its spelling and provided it with scholarly notes. This edition is made still more at tractive by Wyeth's virile pictures in color.
313
Masefield, John. William Shakespeare. (Home univ. lib. ) Holt, 1911.
[He] manages to stimulate the mind of the reader as only the critics who are themselves poets can. . . . We are made in every page to feel the plays, to feel them as rich, splendid, joy-giving, wonder-producing things. —Times (L).
314
Maurois, Andre. Ariel; the life of Shelley; tr. by Ella
D'Arcy. Appleton, 1924
The ideal Shelley shines everywhere in the pages of M. Maurois and he ennobles our dull days by making us feel that the best thing in life is the undying effort to make it different. —Gamaliel Bradford.
48 POETRY AND POETS
315
Meynell, Everard. The life of Francis Thompson. Scribner, 1913.
A record of a rare and appealing personality, depicting the shy poet's life with its bitter experiences, its few strong friendships, its meager but poignant joys. —A. L. A. catalog, 1926.
316
Mims, Edwin. Sidney Lanier. Houghton, 1905.
The characteristics of this interesting volume are its picturesqueness, its simplicity, its fulness of detail and its dispassionate discussion of Lanier's claims to a permanent place among our American poets of fame. —Dial.
317
Morris, Lloyd. The poetry of Edwin Arlington Robinson.
Doran, 1923.
The discussion of Robinson's ideas, men, plays, legends, and history is plentifully illustrated with selections from his verse. —Bookman.
318
Moulton, Richard Green. The ancient classical drama; a study in literary evolution. 2d ed. Clarendon, 1898.
319
Murray, Gilbert. The classical tradition in poetry. 2d ed.
Harvard, 1930.
To enter on the pages of [this] book is to enter into a land of rare beauties and strange calm. One realizes anew that the classics should be read and pondered, if for no other reason, because of the spell of peace they cast. —N. Y. Times.
320
Euripides and his age. (Home univ. lib. ) Holt, 1913.
By that scholar, who, more than any other man, has in this generation restored "the most tragic of poets" to his proper place as a great drama tist and a great thinker. The author has given us of his best, but also in the best, because the simplest, shape. It is a model guide to a great sub j ect. —Spectator.
321
Murry, John Middleton. Keats and Shakespeare; a study
of Keats' poetic life from 1816-1820. Oxford, 1925.
It is an illuminating and deeply pondered study. . . . Mr. Murry has shown, without the shadow of a doubt, that in spirit and in act Keats is indeed not only with Shakespeare but like him. —Nation (L).
322
Myers, Frederick William Henry. Essays ; classical. Mac- millan, 1883.
323
STUDIES OF THE CHOSEN POETS 49
Neilson, William Allan. Robert Burns ; how to know him. Bobbs, 1917.
A very skilful, interesting and compact biography; a well-chosen and well-arranged selection of poems, with fairly numerous glosses in the margin to make clear the Scots dialect, make up a pleasant and useful volume.
324
Newbolt, Sir Henry. A new study of English poetry. Dut-
ton, 1919.
As a supreme vindication of the supreme place of poetry as poetry in human life, as a stimulus to critical thought and a guide to exquisite appreciation—of which his essay on Chaucer is an almost perfect ex ample — [it] deserves all the honor that lies in our power to give. —John Middleton Murry.
325
Nicolson, Harold. Swinburne. (English men of letters) Macmillan, 1926.
Mr. Nicolson writes with much vivacity, much critical acuteness and an enviable gift for apt and graceful quotation. —Saturday Review.
326
Tennyson, new ed. Houghton, 1925.
An acute and, in nearly every respect, a sympathetic piece of think ing. . . . But he should have remembered that Tennyson was not only the lyrist that he admits him to be, but a giant among the minds of a remarkable age.
Had he done this he would not have marred what is otherwise a very beautiful piece of critical exposition. —John Drinkwater.
327
Noyes, Alfred. William Morris. (English men of letters) Macmillan, 1909.
More attention has been paid to the poetic spirit of Morris, to the discovery of the real self in his poetry, than to the vital facts of his career. —Book Review Digest.
328
Palmer, George Herbert. Formative types in English poetry.
Houghton, 1918.
I have wished to fix attention on the half-dozen fundamental, logical and productive crises which have brought us the rich poetry we now possess and may yet bring us richer still. —Preface.
The introductory chapter will delight every student of poetry for its clear analysis of poetic art. —Review of Reviews.
329
Phelps, William Lyon. The advance of English poetry in the twentieth century. Dodd, 1919.
SO POETRY AND POETS 330
Robert Browning; how to know him. Bobbs, 1915.
In great measure [it] fulfils [the need for] an explanatory com mentary on those poems of Browning which are most helpful to the average intelligent reader. It is in essence a very full anthology con taining a great deal of Browning's finest poetry. —Spectator.
331
Pound, Louise. Poetic origins and the ballad. Macmillan, 1921.
It seems, without dismissing historic study, to clear the way for a zestful and common-sense appreciation of ballads and other poems them selves. —North American.
332
Quiller-Couch, Sir Arthur. Notes on Shakespeare's work
manship; from lectures [at Cambridge]. Holt, 1917.
These discourses seek to discover, in some of Shakespeare's plays, just what he was trying to do as a play-wright. —Preface.
333
On the art of reading. Putnam, 1920.
To communicate a gusto, a vivid and thrilling delight in literature for its own sake, as a delectable duchy where no passport, save the fact of your own enjoyment, is required, is a gift given to few. "Q" is among them. —A thenaeum.
334
Studies in literature. 2v. Cambridge, 1918.
These studies exhibit an engaging union of vivacity and good sense, fantasy and sanity. For the greater part his style is refreshingly alert and unacademic— Spectator.
335
Raleigh, Sir Walter. Milton. Arnold, 1914.
A critical study of the poet rather than the man. 336
Shakespeare. (English men of letters) Macmillan, 1907.
It is in his consideration of Shakespeare as a poet and as a creator of character that Prof. Raleigh is seen at his best. —Brander Matthews.
337
Oxford,
338
Rand, Edward K. A walk to Horace's farm. Houghton, 1930.
Describes vividly a pilgrimage to the supposed site. Enriched with happy translations from Horace's poetry, the book is both a distin guished contribution to scholarship and delightful to the general reader. — Publisher.
Some authors ; a collection of literary essays. 1923.
STUDIES OF THE CHOSEN POETS SI
339
Read, Herbert. Phases of English poetry. Hogarth, 1928.
340
Redman, Ben Ray. Edwin Arlington Robinson. McBride,
1926.
A pleasant estimate. Perhaps the best that has been done.
341
Rice, Richard Ashley. Robert Louis Stevenson; how to
know him. Bobbs, 1916.
Readable, good for beginners. —Booklist.
342
Royds, Kathleen. Coleridge and his poetry. Harrap, 1912.
343
Santayana, George. Winds of doctrine; studies in contem
porary opinion. Scribner, 1913.
Brilliant, original essays written by a philosopher who has the poet's vision. —Booklist.
344
Sedgwick, Henry Dwight. Dante. Yale, 1918.
"An elementary book for those who seek in the great poet the teacher of spiritual life," containing interesting facts of his life, the narrative of his Divine Comedy and an appendix of sources. —A. L. A. catalog, 1926.
345
Sellar, William Young. The Roman poets of the Augustan age : Horace and the elegiac poets. Clarendon, 1892.
346
The Roman poets of the Augustan age: Virgil. 3d ed. Oxford, 1908.
347
Shanks, Edward. Second essays on literature. Collins, 1927.
348
Sherman, Stuart Pratt. Matthew Arnold; how to know
him. Bobbs, 1917.
An exceptionally able and comprehensive introduction to a study of Arnold's work and influence. —Boston Transcript.
349
Showerman, Grant. Horace and his influence. (Our debt
to Greece and Rome) Marshall Jones, 1922.
For intelligence and charm one may safely back [this essay] as against any other in the whole voluminous literature on Horace. —It is written in good, clear English, restrained, yet rich and flexible. New Republic.
52 POETRY AND POETS
350
Smart, John Semple. Shakespeare ; truth and tradition. Ar
nold, 1928.
It presents the dramatist in the setting of the times, a natural and con vincing portrait of a man in whom his acquaintances and contemporaries saw nothing to excite special inquiry; nothing astonishing in their good friend save his genius; nothing abnormal in his career save its most ex cellent achievements. — William Macneile Dixon.
351
Smyth, Herbert Weir. Aeschylean tragedy. Univ. of Cal ifornia, 1924.
He handles his learning with an easy touch. He is vivacious and sparkling. He scatters allusion rather freely yet with telling effect. — Nation.
352
Sturgeon, Mary C. Studies of contemporary poets. Rev. ed. Dodd, 1919.
353
Swinburne, Algernon Charles. Essays and studies. Chatto, 1911.
354
Taggard, Genevieve. The life and mind of Emily Dickinson.
Knopf, 1930.
Here for once Emily Dickinson has escaped from her kin and met her kind. She has been patiently, understandingly, beautifully interpreted by a mind fitted to cope with her own. —N. Y. Tribune: Books.
355
Thompson, Francis. Shelley; with introd. by the Right Hon. George Wyndham. Scribner, 1909.
I suppose [this] to be the finest piece of criticism written upon him.
Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch.
356
Tyrrell, Robert Yelverton. Essays on Greek literature.
Macmillan, 1909.
The gist of the book is thoroughly enjoyable reading and reliable scholarship. —North American.
357
Untermeyer, Louis. The new era in American poetry. Holt,
1919.
Reprinted for the most part from periodicals from 1910-1919. They are of unequal worth and interest but their value is the greater because of many quotations from the poets reviewed.
358
STUDIES OF THE CHOSEN POETS S3
Van Doren, Mark. The poetry of John Dryden. Harcourt, 1920.
There is some novelty, I hope, in a treatment, on an extended and more or less enthusiastic scale, of Dryden's non-dramatic verse as a body, with attention to the celebrator, the satirist, the journalist, the
singer and the story-teller all together. —Preface,
359
Van Dyke, Henry. Studies in Tennyson. Scribner, 1920.
360
Warren, Sir Thomas Herbert. Essays of poets and poetry
ancient and modern. Murray, 1909.
No lover of literature could read the volume without having his ad mirations quickened and harmonized, without a renewal of the sense of the dignity and sweetness of the old traditions of art and song. —Satur day Review.
361
Watts-Dunton, Theodore. Old familiar faces. Dutton,
1916.
362
Whiting, Lilian. The Brownings ; their life and art. Little, 1911.
363
Williams, Charles. Poetry at present. Oxford, 1930.
An excellent introduction to the work of sixteen contemporary poets who, in the author's opinion, have in however small an extent enlarged the boundaries of English verse. —Booklist.
364
Williams, Stanley Thomas. Studies in Victorian literature. Dutton, 1923.
365
Winchester, Caleb Thomas. William Wordsworth ; how to
know him. Bobbs, 1916.
Its criticism is usually sound and at times markedly penetrating. — Yale Review.
366
Woodberry, George Edward. Life of Edgar Allan Poe ; per
sonal and literary. 2v. Houghton, 1909.
Besides the interest in the personality and adventures of that "bright but unsteady light" of poetry, this authoritative life has "two special interests in that it was a life led outside of New England, and that it embodies much contemporaneous literary history not involved in any other life of our greater writers. " —Preface.
54 POETRY AND POETS 367
Ralph Waldo Emerson. Macmillan, 1907.
Charmingly written—the style so distinctive, the ideas so often lu minous and so generally fascinating. —Literary Digest.
368
Wylie, Eleanor. The orphan angel. Knopf, 1926.
Shelley is the hero of her story, Shelley rescued, near dead from drowning off Leghorn, by a Yankee clipper brig and, not unwillingly, carried off to America. —Saturday Review.
369
Yeats, William Butler.