Page:Poet Lore, volume 26, 1915.djvu/249

Rh the order followed here is simply the order in which they appear in the three volumes, 'Poems,' 'Sister Songs' and 'New Poems.' In the tables of contents the poems are grouped as follows:

In 'Poems' the first group, called 'Love in Dian's Lap,' is a series of seven love poems. They represent some of the less interesting and perhaps some of the poorest of Thompson's work (though that means neither that they are uninteresting or poor). It is here that he is most the seventeenth century writer; the poems are full of quaint phrases, extravagant fancies, artful metaphors. It is unlike Thompson to be imitative or to be obviously conscious of his art, and the poems of this first group lack his usual spontaneity, though they seem entirely sincere. They are very striking on a first reading, being wholly different from other love