It is written by one who
has a thorough knowledge of the subject and who is herself an American
poet of distinction.
has a thorough knowledge of the subject and who is herself an American
poet of distinction.
Amy Lowell - Chinese Poets
It is a frank and revealing book.
It deals with
fundamentals. . . . In 'Sea-Blue and Blood-red' we have the old story of
Nelson and 'mad, whole-hearted Lady Hamilton' retold in a style that
dazzles and excites like golden standards won from the enemy passing in
procession with the sun upon them. "--_The New York Times Book Review. _
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
BOSTON AND NEW YORK
Legends
BY AMY LOWELL
_Second Printing_
"I read 'Legends' last night, and again this morning. I like them the
best of all your poems. . . . I like best _Many Swans_, which I have read
twice and which I feel really speaks inside my unexplained soul. I
should not like to try to explain it, because of the deep fear and
danger that is in it. But it isn't a myth of the sun, it is something
else. All the better that we can't say offhand what. That means it is
true. It rings a note in my soul. "--D. H. Lawrence.
"The subjects fit the poet like a glove. . . . The book is highly original,
immensely interesting, and in its choice of themes, of the first
significance. "--Prof. John Livingston Lowes in _The New York Evening
Post_.
"These clever dramatic tales are so brilliantly successful that we can
only hope for more of their kind. Here is a canvas broad enough for the
strokes of that untiring brush! Both in subject-matter and technique
Miss Lowell has surpassed herself in these legends. "--John Farrar in
_The Bookman_.
"Miss Lowell builds--or composes--her poems as well as a painter of the
first rank. . . . Her verse becomes increasingly supple. . . . I cannot say
pompously that this latest volume contains Miss Lowell's best work, but
it contains her work that I like best. . . . She is, at any rate, one of
the three graces or nine muses upon whom our poetry stands or
falls. "--Malcolm Cowley in _The Dial_.
"There is no writer in America to-day, of either prose or poetry, who
can manage such brilliant color effects in description. . . . In 'Legends'
she has produced weirdly beautiful work that could never by any
possibility be mistaken for the work of anyone else. "--William Rose
Benét in _The Yale Review_.
"'Legends' is, I think, Miss Lowell's best book . . . the book that
achieves the idiom, the convention that makes her work integral. "
--Padraic Colum in _The Freeman_.
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
BOSTON AND NEW YORK
Sword Blades and Poppy Seed
BY AMY LOWELL
_Fifth edition_
_OPINIONS OF LEADING REVIEWERS_
"Against the multitudinous array of daily verse our times produce this
volume utters itself with a range and brilliancy wholly remarkable. I
cannot see that Miss Lowell's use of unrhymed _vers libre_ has been
surpassed in English. Read 'The Captured Goddess,' 'Music' and 'The
Precinct. Rochester,' a piece of mastercraft in this kind. A wealth of
subtleties and sympathies, gorgeously wrought, full of macabre effects
(as many of the poems are) and brilliantly worked out. The things of
splendor she has made she will hardly outdo in their kind. "--JOSEPHINE
PRESTON PEABODY, _The Boston Herald_.
"For quaint pictorial exactitude and bizarrerie of color these poems
remind one of Flemish masters and Dutch tulip gardens; again, they are
fine and fantastic, like Venetian glass; and they are all curiously
flooded with the moonlight of dreams. . . . Miss Lowell has a remarkable
gift of what one might call the dramatic-decorative. Her decorative
imagery is intensely dramatic, and her dramatic pictures are in
themselves vivid and fantastic decorations. "--RICHARD LE GALLIENNE, _New
York Times Book Review_.
"Such poems as 'A Lady,' 'Music,' 'White and Green,' are wellnigh
flawless in their beauty--perfect 'images. '"--HARRIET MONROE, _Poetry_.
"Her most notable quality appears in the opening passage of the volume.
The sharply etched tones and contours of this picture are characteristic
of the author's work. . . . In 'unrhymed cadence' Miss Lowell's cadences
are sometimes extremely delicate, as in 'The Captured Goddess. '"--ARTHUR
DAVISON FICKE, _Chicago Dial_.
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
BOSTON AND NEW YORK
Tendencies in Modern American Poetry
BY AMY LOWELL
_Fourth Printing, illustrated_
"I have no hesitation in insisting that Miss Amy Lowell's 'Tendencies in
Modern American Poetry' is one of the most striking volumes of criticism
that has appeared in recent years. "--CLEMENT K. SHORTER in _The Sphere_,
London.
"In her recent volume, 'Tendencies in Modern American Poetry,' Miss
Lowell employs this method (the historical) with excellent results. . . .
We feel throughout a spirit of mingled courage, kindness, and
independence illuminating the subject, and the result is the note of
personality that is so priceless in criticism, yet which, unhoneyed on
the one hand or uncrabbed on the other, is so hard to come by . . . her
latest book leaves with the reader a strong impression of the most
simple and unaffected integrity. "--HELEN BULLIS KIZER in _The North
American Review_.
"A new criticism has to be created to meet not only the work of the new
artists but also the uncritical hospitality of current taste. . . . That is
why a study such as Miss Amy Lowell's on recent tendencies in American
verse is so significant. . . . Her very tone is revolutionary. . . . Poetry
appears for the first time on our critical horizon . . . as a sound and
important activity of contemporary American life. "--RANDOLF BOURNE in
_The Dial_.
"Its real worth as criticism and its greater worth as testimony are
invaluable. "--O. W. FIRKINS in _The Nation_.
"The feeling she has for poetry is so genuine and catholic and
instructed, and her acquaintance with modern activity so energetic, that
she is one of the most interesting and illuminating persons with whom to
visit the new poets, led by the hand. "--_New Republic_.
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
BOSTON AND NEW YORK
Men, Women, and Ghosts
BY AMY LOWELL
_Fifth edition_
". . . In the poem which gave its name to a previous volume, 'Sword Blades
and Poppy Seed,' Miss Lowell uttered her Credo with rare sincerity and
passion. Not since Elizabeth Barrett's 'Vision of Poets' has there been
such a confession of faith in the mission of poetry, such a stern
compulsion of dedication laid upon the poet. And in her latest work we
find proof that she has lived according to her confession and her
dedication with a singleness of purpose seldom encountered in our fluid
time.
"'Men, Women, and Ghosts' is a book greatly and strenuously imagined. . . .
Miss Lowell is a great romantic. . . . She belongs to the few who, in every
generation, feel that poetry is a high calling, and who press
undeviatingly toward the mark. They are few, and they are frequently
lonely, but they lead. "--_New York Times Book Review_.
". . . 'The Hammers' is a really thrilling piece of work; the skill with
which it is divided into different moods and motifs is something more
than a tour de force. The way the different hammers are characterized
and given voice, the varying music wrung from them (from the ponderous
banging of the hammers at the building of the 'Bellerophon' to their
light tapping as they pick off the letters of Napoleon's victories on
the arch of the Place du Carrousel), the emphasis with which they reveal
a whole period--these are the things one sees rarely. "--LOUIS UNTERMEYER
in the _Chicago Evening Post_.
". . . Beautiful . . . poetry as authentic as any we know. It is individual,
innocent of echo and imitation, with the uniqueness that comes of
personal genius. . . . Miss Lowell strives to get into words the effects of
the painter's palette and the musician's score. And life withal. Does
she succeed? I should say she does, and the first poem in this book,
'Patterns,' is a brilliant, æsthetic achievement in a combination of
story, imagism, and symbolism. 'Men, Women, and Ghosts' is a volume that
contains beautiful poetry for all readers who have the root of the
matter in them. "--_Reedy's Mirror_, St. Louis.
"The most original of all the young American writers of to-day. "--_The
New Age_, London.
"Brilliant is the term for 'Men, Women, and Ghosts'--praise which holds
good when the book is put to the test of a third reading. "--EDWARD
GARNETT in _The Atlantic Monthly_.
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
BOSTON AND NEW YORK
A Dome of Many-Coloured Glass
BY AMY LOWELL
_Fifth edition_
"These poems arouse interest, and justify it by the result. Miss Lowell
is the sister of President Lowell of Harvard. Her art, however, needs no
reflection from such distinguished influence to make apparent its
distinction. Such verse as this is delightful, has a sort of personal
flavour, a loyalty to the fundamentals of life and nationality. . . . The
child poems are particularly graceful. "--_Boston Evening Transcript_,
Boston, Mass.
"Miss Lowell has given expression in exquisite form to many beautiful
thoughts, inspired by a variety of subjects and based on some of the
loftiest ideals. . . .
"The verses are grouped under the captions 'Lyrical Poems,' 'Sonnets,'
and 'Verses for Children. '. . .
"It is difficult to say which of these are the most successful. Indeed,
all reveal Miss Lowell's powers of observation from the view-point of a
lover of nature. Moreover, Miss Lowell writes with a gentle philosophy
and a deep knowledge of humanity. . . .
"The sonnets are especially appealing and touch the heart strings so
tenderly that there comes immediate response in the same spirit. . . .
"That she knows the workings of the juvenile mind is plainly indicated
by her verses written for their reading. "--_Boston Sunday Globe_,
Boston, Mass.
"A quite delightful little collection of verses. "--_Toronto Globe_,
Toronto, Canada.
"The Lyrics are true to the old definition; they would sing well to the
accompaniment of the strings. We should like to hear 'Hora Stellatrix'
rendered by an artist. "--_Hartford Courant_, Hartford, Conn.
"Verses that show delicate appreciation of the beautiful, and
imaginative quality. A sonnet entitled 'Dreams' is peculiarly full of
sympathy and feeling. "--_The Sun_, Baltimore, Md.
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
BOSTON AND NEW YORK
Six French Poets
STUDIES IN CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE
BY AMY LOWELL
_Third edition, illustrated_
A brilliant series of biographical and critical essays dealing with
Emile Verhaeren, Albert Samain, Remy de Gourmont, Henri de Régnier,
Francis Jammes, and Paul Fort, by one of the foremost living American
poets. The translations make up an important part of the book, and
together with the French originals constitute a representative anthology
of the poetry of the period.
WILLIAM LYON PHELPS, Professor of English Literature, Yale University,
says:
"This is, I think, the most valuable work on contemporary French
literature that I have seen for a long time.
It is written by one who
has a thorough knowledge of the subject and who is herself an American
poet of distinction. She has the knowledge, the sympathy, the
penetration, and the insight--all necessary to make a notable book of
criticism. It is a work that should be widely read in America. "
"In her 'Six French Poets' I find a stimulating quality of a high
order. . . . I defy any English critic to rise from this book without the
feeling that he has gained considerably. This is the first volume in
English to contain a minute and careful study of these French
writers. "--CLEMENT K. SHORTER in _The Sphere_, London.
"I can conceive of no greater pleasure than that of a lover of poetry
who reads in Miss Lowell's book about modern French poetry for the first
time; it must be like falling into El Dorado. "--F. S. FLINT, formerly
French critic of _Poetry and Drama_, London, in _The Little Review_.
"Amy Lowell's 'French Poets' . . . ought to be labelled like Pater's
studies 'Appreciations,' so full of charm are its penetrative
interpretations . . . and it is not too bold to say that her introductions
to and interpretations of French poets will live as long as interest in
these poets themselves lives. Her book is a living and lasting piece of
criticism . . . a masterly volume. "--_New York Sun. _
"A very admirable piece of work. "--_The London Bookman. _
"Une très interessante étude. "--_La France. _
"An excellent book. "--EMILE CAMMAERTS in _The Athenæum_, London.
"Miss Lowell has done a real service to literature. One must be limited,
indeed, who fails to appreciate the power of these writers as set forth
through the comment, the discriminating extracts, and the appended prose
translations in her book. "--_North American Review.
fundamentals. . . . In 'Sea-Blue and Blood-red' we have the old story of
Nelson and 'mad, whole-hearted Lady Hamilton' retold in a style that
dazzles and excites like golden standards won from the enemy passing in
procession with the sun upon them. "--_The New York Times Book Review. _
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
BOSTON AND NEW YORK
Legends
BY AMY LOWELL
_Second Printing_
"I read 'Legends' last night, and again this morning. I like them the
best of all your poems. . . . I like best _Many Swans_, which I have read
twice and which I feel really speaks inside my unexplained soul. I
should not like to try to explain it, because of the deep fear and
danger that is in it. But it isn't a myth of the sun, it is something
else. All the better that we can't say offhand what. That means it is
true. It rings a note in my soul. "--D. H. Lawrence.
"The subjects fit the poet like a glove. . . . The book is highly original,
immensely interesting, and in its choice of themes, of the first
significance. "--Prof. John Livingston Lowes in _The New York Evening
Post_.
"These clever dramatic tales are so brilliantly successful that we can
only hope for more of their kind. Here is a canvas broad enough for the
strokes of that untiring brush! Both in subject-matter and technique
Miss Lowell has surpassed herself in these legends. "--John Farrar in
_The Bookman_.
"Miss Lowell builds--or composes--her poems as well as a painter of the
first rank. . . . Her verse becomes increasingly supple. . . . I cannot say
pompously that this latest volume contains Miss Lowell's best work, but
it contains her work that I like best. . . . She is, at any rate, one of
the three graces or nine muses upon whom our poetry stands or
falls. "--Malcolm Cowley in _The Dial_.
"There is no writer in America to-day, of either prose or poetry, who
can manage such brilliant color effects in description. . . . In 'Legends'
she has produced weirdly beautiful work that could never by any
possibility be mistaken for the work of anyone else. "--William Rose
Benét in _The Yale Review_.
"'Legends' is, I think, Miss Lowell's best book . . . the book that
achieves the idiom, the convention that makes her work integral. "
--Padraic Colum in _The Freeman_.
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
BOSTON AND NEW YORK
Sword Blades and Poppy Seed
BY AMY LOWELL
_Fifth edition_
_OPINIONS OF LEADING REVIEWERS_
"Against the multitudinous array of daily verse our times produce this
volume utters itself with a range and brilliancy wholly remarkable. I
cannot see that Miss Lowell's use of unrhymed _vers libre_ has been
surpassed in English. Read 'The Captured Goddess,' 'Music' and 'The
Precinct. Rochester,' a piece of mastercraft in this kind. A wealth of
subtleties and sympathies, gorgeously wrought, full of macabre effects
(as many of the poems are) and brilliantly worked out. The things of
splendor she has made she will hardly outdo in their kind. "--JOSEPHINE
PRESTON PEABODY, _The Boston Herald_.
"For quaint pictorial exactitude and bizarrerie of color these poems
remind one of Flemish masters and Dutch tulip gardens; again, they are
fine and fantastic, like Venetian glass; and they are all curiously
flooded with the moonlight of dreams. . . . Miss Lowell has a remarkable
gift of what one might call the dramatic-decorative. Her decorative
imagery is intensely dramatic, and her dramatic pictures are in
themselves vivid and fantastic decorations. "--RICHARD LE GALLIENNE, _New
York Times Book Review_.
"Such poems as 'A Lady,' 'Music,' 'White and Green,' are wellnigh
flawless in their beauty--perfect 'images. '"--HARRIET MONROE, _Poetry_.
"Her most notable quality appears in the opening passage of the volume.
The sharply etched tones and contours of this picture are characteristic
of the author's work. . . . In 'unrhymed cadence' Miss Lowell's cadences
are sometimes extremely delicate, as in 'The Captured Goddess. '"--ARTHUR
DAVISON FICKE, _Chicago Dial_.
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
BOSTON AND NEW YORK
Tendencies in Modern American Poetry
BY AMY LOWELL
_Fourth Printing, illustrated_
"I have no hesitation in insisting that Miss Amy Lowell's 'Tendencies in
Modern American Poetry' is one of the most striking volumes of criticism
that has appeared in recent years. "--CLEMENT K. SHORTER in _The Sphere_,
London.
"In her recent volume, 'Tendencies in Modern American Poetry,' Miss
Lowell employs this method (the historical) with excellent results. . . .
We feel throughout a spirit of mingled courage, kindness, and
independence illuminating the subject, and the result is the note of
personality that is so priceless in criticism, yet which, unhoneyed on
the one hand or uncrabbed on the other, is so hard to come by . . . her
latest book leaves with the reader a strong impression of the most
simple and unaffected integrity. "--HELEN BULLIS KIZER in _The North
American Review_.
"A new criticism has to be created to meet not only the work of the new
artists but also the uncritical hospitality of current taste. . . . That is
why a study such as Miss Amy Lowell's on recent tendencies in American
verse is so significant. . . . Her very tone is revolutionary. . . . Poetry
appears for the first time on our critical horizon . . . as a sound and
important activity of contemporary American life. "--RANDOLF BOURNE in
_The Dial_.
"Its real worth as criticism and its greater worth as testimony are
invaluable. "--O. W. FIRKINS in _The Nation_.
"The feeling she has for poetry is so genuine and catholic and
instructed, and her acquaintance with modern activity so energetic, that
she is one of the most interesting and illuminating persons with whom to
visit the new poets, led by the hand. "--_New Republic_.
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
BOSTON AND NEW YORK
Men, Women, and Ghosts
BY AMY LOWELL
_Fifth edition_
". . . In the poem which gave its name to a previous volume, 'Sword Blades
and Poppy Seed,' Miss Lowell uttered her Credo with rare sincerity and
passion. Not since Elizabeth Barrett's 'Vision of Poets' has there been
such a confession of faith in the mission of poetry, such a stern
compulsion of dedication laid upon the poet. And in her latest work we
find proof that she has lived according to her confession and her
dedication with a singleness of purpose seldom encountered in our fluid
time.
"'Men, Women, and Ghosts' is a book greatly and strenuously imagined. . . .
Miss Lowell is a great romantic. . . . She belongs to the few who, in every
generation, feel that poetry is a high calling, and who press
undeviatingly toward the mark. They are few, and they are frequently
lonely, but they lead. "--_New York Times Book Review_.
". . . 'The Hammers' is a really thrilling piece of work; the skill with
which it is divided into different moods and motifs is something more
than a tour de force. The way the different hammers are characterized
and given voice, the varying music wrung from them (from the ponderous
banging of the hammers at the building of the 'Bellerophon' to their
light tapping as they pick off the letters of Napoleon's victories on
the arch of the Place du Carrousel), the emphasis with which they reveal
a whole period--these are the things one sees rarely. "--LOUIS UNTERMEYER
in the _Chicago Evening Post_.
". . . Beautiful . . . poetry as authentic as any we know. It is individual,
innocent of echo and imitation, with the uniqueness that comes of
personal genius. . . . Miss Lowell strives to get into words the effects of
the painter's palette and the musician's score. And life withal. Does
she succeed? I should say she does, and the first poem in this book,
'Patterns,' is a brilliant, æsthetic achievement in a combination of
story, imagism, and symbolism. 'Men, Women, and Ghosts' is a volume that
contains beautiful poetry for all readers who have the root of the
matter in them. "--_Reedy's Mirror_, St. Louis.
"The most original of all the young American writers of to-day. "--_The
New Age_, London.
"Brilliant is the term for 'Men, Women, and Ghosts'--praise which holds
good when the book is put to the test of a third reading. "--EDWARD
GARNETT in _The Atlantic Monthly_.
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
BOSTON AND NEW YORK
A Dome of Many-Coloured Glass
BY AMY LOWELL
_Fifth edition_
"These poems arouse interest, and justify it by the result. Miss Lowell
is the sister of President Lowell of Harvard. Her art, however, needs no
reflection from such distinguished influence to make apparent its
distinction. Such verse as this is delightful, has a sort of personal
flavour, a loyalty to the fundamentals of life and nationality. . . . The
child poems are particularly graceful. "--_Boston Evening Transcript_,
Boston, Mass.
"Miss Lowell has given expression in exquisite form to many beautiful
thoughts, inspired by a variety of subjects and based on some of the
loftiest ideals. . . .
"The verses are grouped under the captions 'Lyrical Poems,' 'Sonnets,'
and 'Verses for Children. '. . .
"It is difficult to say which of these are the most successful. Indeed,
all reveal Miss Lowell's powers of observation from the view-point of a
lover of nature. Moreover, Miss Lowell writes with a gentle philosophy
and a deep knowledge of humanity. . . .
"The sonnets are especially appealing and touch the heart strings so
tenderly that there comes immediate response in the same spirit. . . .
"That she knows the workings of the juvenile mind is plainly indicated
by her verses written for their reading. "--_Boston Sunday Globe_,
Boston, Mass.
"A quite delightful little collection of verses. "--_Toronto Globe_,
Toronto, Canada.
"The Lyrics are true to the old definition; they would sing well to the
accompaniment of the strings. We should like to hear 'Hora Stellatrix'
rendered by an artist. "--_Hartford Courant_, Hartford, Conn.
"Verses that show delicate appreciation of the beautiful, and
imaginative quality. A sonnet entitled 'Dreams' is peculiarly full of
sympathy and feeling. "--_The Sun_, Baltimore, Md.
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
BOSTON AND NEW YORK
Six French Poets
STUDIES IN CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE
BY AMY LOWELL
_Third edition, illustrated_
A brilliant series of biographical and critical essays dealing with
Emile Verhaeren, Albert Samain, Remy de Gourmont, Henri de Régnier,
Francis Jammes, and Paul Fort, by one of the foremost living American
poets. The translations make up an important part of the book, and
together with the French originals constitute a representative anthology
of the poetry of the period.
WILLIAM LYON PHELPS, Professor of English Literature, Yale University,
says:
"This is, I think, the most valuable work on contemporary French
literature that I have seen for a long time.
It is written by one who
has a thorough knowledge of the subject and who is herself an American
poet of distinction. She has the knowledge, the sympathy, the
penetration, and the insight--all necessary to make a notable book of
criticism. It is a work that should be widely read in America. "
"In her 'Six French Poets' I find a stimulating quality of a high
order. . . . I defy any English critic to rise from this book without the
feeling that he has gained considerably. This is the first volume in
English to contain a minute and careful study of these French
writers. "--CLEMENT K. SHORTER in _The Sphere_, London.
"I can conceive of no greater pleasure than that of a lover of poetry
who reads in Miss Lowell's book about modern French poetry for the first
time; it must be like falling into El Dorado. "--F. S. FLINT, formerly
French critic of _Poetry and Drama_, London, in _The Little Review_.
"Amy Lowell's 'French Poets' . . . ought to be labelled like Pater's
studies 'Appreciations,' so full of charm are its penetrative
interpretations . . . and it is not too bold to say that her introductions
to and interpretations of French poets will live as long as interest in
these poets themselves lives. Her book is a living and lasting piece of
criticism . . . a masterly volume. "--_New York Sun. _
"A very admirable piece of work. "--_The London Bookman. _
"Une très interessante étude. "--_La France. _
"An excellent book. "--EMILE CAMMAERTS in _The Athenæum_, London.
"Miss Lowell has done a real service to literature. One must be limited,
indeed, who fails to appreciate the power of these writers as set forth
through the comment, the discriminating extracts, and the appended prose
translations in her book. "--_North American Review.
