Porzia Part 14

THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS

GARDEN CITY, N.Y.

FAR QUESTS

CALE YOUNG RICE

"The countrymen of Cale Young Rice apparently regard him as the equal of the great American poets of the past. _Far Quests_ is good unquestionably. It shows a wide range of thought, and sympathy, and real skill in workmans.h.i.+p, while occasionally it rises to heights of simplicity and truth, that suggest such inspiration as should mean lasting fame."--_The Daily Telegraph (London)._

"Mr. Rice's lyrics are deeply impressive. A large number are complete and full-blooded works of art."--_Prof. Wm. Lyon Phelps (Yale University)._

"_Far Quests_ contains much beautiful work--the work of a real poet in imagination and achievement."--_Prof. J. W. Mackail (Oxford University)._

"Mr. Rice is determined to get away from local or national limitations and be at whatever cost universal.... These poems are always animated by a force and freshness of feeling rare in work of such high virtuosity."--_The Scotsman (Edinburgh)._

"Mr. Cale Young Rice is acknowledged by his countrymen to be one of their great poets. There is great charm in the nature songs (of this volume) and of the East. Mr. Rice writes with great simplicity and beauty."--_The Sphere (London)._

"Mr. Rice's forte is a poetic drama. Yet in the act of saying this the critic is confronted by such poems as _The Mystic_.... These are the poems of a thinker, a man of large horizons, an optimist profoundly impressed with the pathos of man's quest for happiness in all lands."--_The Chicago Record-Herald._

"Mr. Rice's latest volume shows no diminution of poetic power. Fecundity is a mark of the genuine poet, and a glance through these pages will demonstrate how rich Mr. Rice is in vitality and variety of thought....

There is too, the unmistakable quality of style. It is spontaneous, flexible, and strong with the strength of simplicity--a style of rare distinction."--_Albert S. Henry (The Book News Monthly, Philadelphia)._

THE IMMORTAL LURE

CALE YOUNG RICE

It is great art--with great vitality.--_James Lane Allen._

In the midst of the Spring rush there arrives one book for which all else is pushed aside.... We have been educated to the belief that a man must be long dead before he can be enrolled with the great ones. Let us forget this cruel teaching.... This volume contains four poetic dramas all different in setting, and all so beautiful that we cannot choose one more perfect than another.... Too extravagant praise cannot be given Mr.

Rice.--_The San Francisco Call._

Four brief dramas, different from Paolo & Francesca, but excelling it--or any other of Mr. Phillips's work, it is safe to say--in a vivid presentment of a supreme moment in the lives of the characters.... They form excellent examples of the range of Mr. Rice's genius in this field.--_The New York Times Review._

Mr. Rice is quite the most ambitious, and most distinguished of contemporary poetic dramatists in America.--_The Boston Transcript (W.

S. Braithwaite)._

The vigor and originality of Mr. Rice's work never outweigh that first qualification, beauty.... No American writer has so enriched the body of our poetic literature in the past few years.--_The New Orleans Picayune._

Mr. Rice is beyond doubt the most distinguished poetic dramatist America has yet produced.--_The Detroit Free Press._

That in Cale Young Rice a new American poet of great power and originality has arisen cannot be denied. He has somehow discovered the secret of the mystery, wonder and spirituality of human existence, which has been all but lost in our commercial civilization. May he succeed in awakening our people from sordid dreams of gain.--_Rochester (N. Y.) Post Express._

No writer in England or America holds himself to higher ideals (than Mr.

Rice) and everything he does bears the imprint of exquisite taste and the finest poetic instinct.--_The Portland Oregonian._

In simplicity of art form and sheer mystery of romanticism these poetic dramas embody the new century artistry that is remaking current imaginative literature.--_The Philadelphia North American._

Cale Young Rice is justly regarded as the leading master of the difficult form of poetic drama.--_Portland (Me.) Press._

Mr. Rice has outlived the prophesy that he would one day rival Stephen Phillips in the poetic drama. As dexterous in the mechanism of his art, the young American is the Englishman's superior in that unforced quality which bespeaks true inspiration, and in a wider variety of manner and theme.--_San Francisco Chronicle._

Mr. Rice's work has often been compared to Stephen Phillips's and there is great resemblance in their expression of high vision. Mr. Rice's technique is sure, ... his knowledge of his settings impeccable, and one feels sincerely the pa.s.sion, power and sensuous beauty of the whole.

"Arduin" (one of the plays) is perfect tragedy; as rounded as a sphere, as terrible as death.--_Review of Reviews._

The Immortal Lure is a very beautiful work.--_The Springfield (Ma.s.s.) Republican._

The action in Mr. Rice's dramas is invariably compact and powerful, his writing remarkably forcible and clear, with a rare grasp of form. The plays are brief and cla.s.sic.--_Baltimore News._

These four dramas, each a separate unit perfect in itself and differing widely in treatment, are yet vitally related by reason of the one central theme, wrought out with rich imagery and with compelling dramatic power.--_The Louisville Times (U. S.)_

The literary and poetical merit of these dramas is undeniable, and they are charged with the emotional life and human interest that should, but do not, always go along with those other high gifts.--_The (London) Bookman._

Mr. Rice never [like Stephen Phillips] mistakes strenuous phrase for strong thought. He makes his blank verse his servant, and it has the stage merit of possessing the freedom of prose while retaining the impa.s.sioned movement of poetry.--_The Glasgow (Scotland) Herald._

These firm and vivid pieces of work are truly welcome as examples of poetic force that succeeds without the help of poetic license.--_The Literary World (London)._

We do not possess a living American poet whose utterance is so clear, so felicitous, so free from the inane and meretricious folly of sugared lines.... No one has a better understanding of the development of dramatic action than Mr. Rice.--_The Book News Monthly (Albert S.

Henry)._