Our Best Poets, English and American

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1922. Excerpt: ... VIII J. C. SQUIRE: A CRITIC TAKES HIS CRITICS BY SURPRISE MR. J. C. SQUIRE must be one of the most brilliant men alive. For not only is he (probably) our most illuminative and entertaining literary critic, and (certainly) the cleverest parodist the world has seen--at least so far as verse is concerned (and I do not forget the Shakesperean lyrics in Mr. Max Beerbohm's Savonarola Brown)--but he is also one of the best of contemporary poets. Moreover, Mr. Squire has demonstrated by his conduct of The New Statesman and later of The London Mercury that he may be considered as one of the most successful contemporary editors. And when we remember that he has crowded all these triumphs into ten years (he is only thirty-six) his amazing career takes our breath away. Or it would did we not also remember other facts. One of these is that his industry has been remarkable as his talent; and quiet, persistent industry--a very different thing from fitful feverish energy--is a plain, breadand-butter virtue. Another fact also tones down for us J. C. Squire's dazzling brilliance, and that is the easy appearance of his achievements. A third fortunate fact is the common sense of his mind. Now when a man has industry and unaffected ease and common sense nobody will be terribly afraid of him. If anybody did feel awe in his presence I am sure that Mr. Squire would go off into shouts of uproarious laughter. I am not here directly concerned with Mr. Squire except as a poet--though there is a connection between his critical and his creative work, upon which more may be said later. But it cannot be out of place to begin, where Squire himself began, with his parodies. Some poets, like Swinburne (who in the decline of his genius fell back first upon parodying Tennyson and Browning ...