Page:The nature and elements of poetry, Stedman, 1892.djvu/374

 It will not be possible for any sensitive reader of the poets of America to forget that Mr. Stedman is also a poet; but it will be equally impossible for such a reader to regret it. The solid qualities of the book are the result of patient, conscientious, scholarly work, which shows on almost every page; its finer qualities, the delicate touch of sympathy, the glow of hope, the spiritual magnetism, are the fruit of the poetic temperament which no amount of in- dustry can ever cultivate unless it first has the seed. The New Princeton Review. A true critical insight enables Mr. Stedman to deal with his subject in a generous and a noble spirit, and yet in one that is eminently just and faithful to fact. His critical gifts are of a kind rarely to be found in this country, and none are more needed in our literature at the present time. Unitarian Re- view. This book should quickly become a standard wherever cultivated persons desire an honest, sympathetic, suggestive, entertaining, and experienced guide to the most interesting epoch of American literature. The Independent. We are greatly indebted to Mr. Stedman for this fine example of what lit- erary criticism should be. . . . No one not himself a poet, and a poet with a noble spirit, could have written this book. THOMAS S. HASTINGS, D. D., in The Presbyterian Review. This is the history of American poetry; it is conceived and executed in the grand style of literary criticism, and it does not fall below its promise. GEO. E. WOODBERRY, in The Atlantic Monthly. FOREIGN CRITICISMS. In his " Poets of America " Mr. Stedman displays the same competent skill, honesty of purpose, and painstaking thoroughness of execution [as in his work on " Victorian Poets "|; and he adds to these qualities the great ad- vantage of being on his native soil. To the students of American verse his volume is almost indispensable. . . . Every one will not agree with his con- clusions; but no one can differ from so well-informed and conscientious a critic without self-distrust. The Quarterly Review (London). This book, with its few and only superficial defects, and with its many solid merits, is one which most persons of taste and culture will like to possess. The Saturday Review (London). Mr. Stedman deserves thanks for having devoted his profound erudition and the high impartiality of which he is capable, to making us acquainted with the literature of poetry as it has existed from the beginning in his country. His important and thorough study is conducted with the method, the scrupu- lousness, the perspicacity, which he applied formerly to the work of the Vic- torian Poets. La Revue des Deux Mondes (Paris).