Page:The Pathfinder, Swiggett, June 1911.djvu/12

8 substance; and again it is to be said that the verse of Florence Earle Coates answers these exacting requirements. Distinguished in form as in thought, it is as noteworthy in its manner as in its matter.

The invariable melody of the lines is no more remarkable than the wide variety of verse forms, handled at once with sincerity and facility. Their range is wide from the simplest love-lyric to the noblest threnody. The highly dramatic is to be found there, as well as the purely subjective. The 'occasional' poems are peculiarly felicitous, as, for example, the "Perdita" ("On seeing Miss Anderson in the rôle"), a lyric whose laughing lines dance along with a lilt of charming verse-weaving, its spontaneity no whit dulled by the craft which gives outward and visible form to the inward visions stirred by the delightful scene.

Yes, here is artistry of genuine quality, touching poesy's great circle at many points, yet never betraying the painstaking labor which must lie behind it.

More important, however, back of all this variety of form there is an equally wide range of thought. The culture born of a wide acquaintance with art and literature and travel,