LESS formidable in appearance than her war-time study of "Tendencies in Modern American Poetry," Amy Lowell's posthumous volume of critical writings proves to be a very solid, if graceful, piece of work. It reveals deep appreciation and true understanding admirably supported by sound sesthetic standards. "Poetry and Poets," which may be considered one of the last autheritic utterances of the old New England school of liberals, contains among other things, Miss Lowell's views on "Poetry, Imagination, and Education," Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, and D. R. Lawrence.

Miss Lowell is very much concerned with the place of poetry in a democratic society. "Imagination," she tells us, "is the root of all civilization," and poetry is needed to "exert its imaginative training upon youth." With this premise Miss Lowell developes some theories which contribute her share to the educational traditions of her family. She concludes the "there is one great fault in our educational systems today; they teach, but they do not train; and the one faculty without which no other can come to fruition is never really trained at all, for we cannot deny that imagination is forced to strive against adverse circumstances both at home and in school."

Miss Lowell's criticism of Whitman and Dickinson is, on the whole, conservative. She laments the narrowing shelter of Miss Dickinson's friends and points out her great art in "presenting movement." For the author of "Leaves of Grass" she has no superlative praise, but commenting on his writing she declares it is poetry "because he approaches his subject from the poetic point of view." Then comes this significant addition, "what makes a literary work prose or poetry . . . is a matter of approach and of return. By return I mean some device by which a poem is brought continually back to its starting-place--something which keeps the basic emotional symbol constantly reappearing throughout the poem."

"Poetry and Poets" includes two essays on the late D. H. Lawrence. Miss Lowell finds Lawrence a highly original and perfectly sincere genius without a prototype in literature. Perhaps it is sufficient to say that those who have a knowledge of Lawrence outside of the police court will find her observations among the most sympathetic and appreciative that have been written