ver warmed by
the sun of beauty and shone on by the stars of romance. For the poems in
this book are woven of the stuff of sheer romance. There is nothing else
in the world as depressing as a romantic poem that doesn't 'get there.'
And to us, at least, there is nothing as thrilling as the authentic voice
of romance, the genuine utterance of the soul that walks in communion with
beauty. _Moons of Grandeur_ is a ringing bell and a glimmering tapestry
and a draught of sparkling wine.

"A certain rich intricacy of pattern distinguishes the physical body of
Benet's art; when he chooses he can use words as if they were the jewelled
particles of a mosaic; familiar words, with his handling, become
'something rich and strange.' Of the spiritual content of his poems, we
can say nothing adequate, because there is not much that can be said of
spirit; either it is there and you feel it, and it works upon you, or it
is not there. There are very few people writing verse today who have the
power to charm us and enchant us and carry us away with them as Benet can.
He has found the horse with wings."

_The Bookman Anthology of Verse_ (1922), edited by John Farrar, editor of
The Bookman, is an altogether extraordinary anthology to be made up from
the poets contributing to a single magazine in eighteen consecutive
months. Among those who are represented are: Franklin P. Adams, Karle
Wilson Baker, Maxwell Bodenheim, Hilda Conkling, John Dos Passos, Zona
Gale, D. H. Lawrence, Amy Lowell, David Morton, Edwin Arlington Robinson,
Carl Sandburg, Siegfried Sassoon, Sara Teasdale, Louis and Jean Starr
Untermeyer, and Elinor Wylie.

Mr. Farrar has written short introductions to the example (or examples) of
the work of each poet. In his general preface he says:

"Where most anthologies of poetry are collected for the purpose of giving
pleasure by means of the verses themselves, I have tried here to give you
something of the joy to be found in securing manuscripts, in attempting to
understand current poetry by a broadening of taste to match broadening
literary tendencies; and, perhaps most important of all, to present you to
the poets themselves as I know them by actual meeting or correspondence."

I will choose what Mr. Farrar says about Hilda Conkling, prefacing her
poem "Lonely Song"; and then I will quote the poem:

"A shy, but normal little girl, twelve years old now, nine when her first
volume of verses appeared, Hilda Conkling is not so m