North America, Continent of Conjecture by Robert McAlmon

In his judgment of the poets, the author is too generous,
not to say charitable, to please the critical. He pours on
praise with a hose, yet for the purpose of this book I cannot
but feel that this is better than applying it with a medicine
dropper. American poetry, particularly modern American
poetry, is unappreciated, unread even, by the overwhelm-
ing majority of the people. They need to have its good
qualities pointed out to them; a little overemphasis does
slight harm. Moreover, Mr. Kreymborg's relative placing
of the more important poets-so far as he attempts this
task-seems to me generally sound and fair.
                         Nelson Antrim Crawford

                 BRIEF NOTICES
North America, Continent of Conjecture, by Robert
 McAlmon. Contact Editions, Paris. |
  Cursory examination would be enough to show how far,
in a similar project, Mr. McAlmon's poem falls below Hart
Crane's The Bridge. His historical fragments-even with-
out the organization necessary to a complete work-betray
indiscriminate selection, careless understanding, and a
reach too wide and too eagerly attempted to insure
mastery. Vigor is present in many separate statements
and excellent realism in several episodes, and one finds
considerable control of structural and metrical variety, but
the poem does not disclose a vision capable of utilizing
these factors effectively, or with any assurance of the unity
these large dimensions require.