I named Keats with no purpose of likening this young
poet to him, but since he is named it is impossible not to recognize
that they are of the same Hellenic race; full of like rapture in sky
and field and stream, and of a like sensitive reluctance from whatever
chills the joy of sense in youth, in love, in melancholy. I know Mr.
Cawein has faults, and very probably he knows it, too; his delight in
color sometimes plunges him into mere paint; his wish to follow a
subtle thought or emotion sometimes lures him into empty dusks; his
devotion to nature sometimes contents him with solitudes bereft of the
human interest by which alone the landscape lives. But he is, to my
thinking, a most genuine poet, and one of these few Americans, who,
even in their over-refinement, could never be mistaken for Europeans;
who perhaps by reason of it are only the more American."--WILLIAM
DEAN HOWELLS in _Literature_.
"From the poetry of our day I select that of Madison Cawein as an
example of conspicuous merit.
Pages:
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92