Page:Some soldier poets.djvu/95

Rh which seems to demand punctuation thus—

whereas the sense is as I have amended it. Besides this, the two latter stanzas distinctly fall off in aptness of phrase as compared with the first two.

The poems entitled Recognition and The Little Road and the first of the two Ballades are also not only truly inspired and well designed, but spoilt in similar ways. His interests and sentiments have perhaps a wider range than with most of these poets, and are almost all commendable and endearing, only it is expression makes the poet, and here the general effect is easy-going and commonplace. No doubt the facility with which he is amused by the first-coming features of his own work and of the world is a sign of youth, and makes his width of range the more promising. It is rare indeed to find in work, the general allure of which is so casual, lines so just, direct and impassioned as were the first five I quoted from him, moving with their own movement, uncontrolled by the conventional notions of form which are habitual with their author; and they certainly should set expectancy on tiptoe for what he will produce during the next few years. Every honest heart is at moments maddened by a glimpse of beauty in behaviour or in persons: then their thought suddenly darts upward as though a robin were possessed by the soul of a lark. Was this such a moment, or are the other poems the tawdry swaddling of a still unconscious master? Ability there is plenty of; his mundane effectiveness may reach the level of Kipling's.

Rh