4 JUNE 1921, Page 21

POETS AND POETRY.

FAREWELL.

MR. F. W. HARVEY'S calling his new book of poems Farewell has an ugly look. He has an ambiguous little preface to it in which he says :— " In spite of all the soulful utterances of people comfortably off, economic independence remains the first condition of happi- ness. This is not to say that people aren't great fools for pre- ferring law to literature. It is rather to imply that a poet who can do both is a fool if he does not. I am not a fool. Farewell 1 "

Now what does this mean ?

Several of the most attractive poems in the present volume appeared first in the Spectator. For example, the greater part of the " Prayers " at the beginning, "The Hollow Land," the

poem on the moon which begins :— " What have you not seen, Old White-face, looking down and the beautiful "Lucky."

In writing of Mr. Harvey's work before we have had to com-

plain of its extraordinary inequality. The volume called Ducks, besides the delightful name-piece, contains some absurdly bad

verse, but in his now volume Mr. Harvey maintains a much higher leveL The reader may find poems that he does not feel are very successful, but all are worth printing and have some- thing in thorn. One or two of the sonnets are delightful. We are glad to see that he is trying his hand at prose poems. Here is an example :— " Blow, Invisible Mouths I Did God blow upon a reed (having cut it to His mind), what melodies might not be piped 1—what news of glorious birth ! To you, beloved Dead, I give my life that is but a reed. Blow, blow, invisible mouths of God 1" In these pieces of prose he gots away a little from the influence of "The Shropshire Lad," which is good, for Mr. Harvey is quite able to stand on his own legs. Out of the present volume "The Moon" and " Lucky " remain the present writer's favourites.

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