Page:The Poetical Works of Jonathan E. Hoag.djvu/19

. The spirit of childhood is very close to him, and he retains with a truly photographic accuracy his original reactions to the rural scene of the thirties; so that we may share the young enthusiasm with which he thrilled so many decades ago. Not a sentiment or perception is missing, and even the outworn, supposedly exploded values of the past take on a new reality as seen again through his unspoiled and ever-youthful eyes.

The present volume includes, besides one earlier piece, the entire output of Mr. Hoag's finished Muse; that is, that portion of his contemporary work which has passed the scrutiny of his more calmly appraising second judgment, including all permanent material written between the winter of 1915-16 and the spring of 1923. What place it may ultimately take in the pastoral minstrelsy of America is not for the writer to predict; since the whole aesthetic order is at present so convulsed with unrest, rebellion, and a virtual transvaluation of values. But we may at least agree that according to accepted standards, our poet has accomplished a marvellous work in capturing the spirit of the buoyant, hopeful past for the benefit of the doubting, pessimistic present. What would we not give for that earlier outlook upon man, the world, and the universe! The esteem in which "Scriba" is held by his contemporaries may plainly be seen from the bulky appendix of tributes, in which the present writer appears as a persistent and periodical offender. It is that writer's hope, both from personal regard and from a disinterested love of beauty in literature, that he may have the privilege of adding some day to these tributes a centennial ode which its venerable subject may read in the full vigour of a lengthened span. H. P. LOVECRAFT. March, 1923.