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Poetry of To-day
The Poetry Review New Verse Supplement PR
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v i
MARCH-APRIL 1919



GRAPES OF THORNS. By CAPTAIN J. E. STEWART, M.C. (Border Regi-
ment. Killed in action April, 1918). Fcap. 8vo. is. 6d. net. (2nd
impression.)

" Captain Stewart feels the pathos of war too deeply to deck it with ornament, and his
reticence is more effective than any poetical rhetoric could be. His characteristic is a tender
though tf ulness, expressed with a delicacy of touch sometimes reminiscent of the seventeenth
century lyrics." Times.

" Those who wish to obtain insight into the psychology of the person of education, sym-
pathy and sensitiveness, who has to live his life in the war zone, might, with confidence, be
recommended to read Grapes of Thorns. This little volume of poetry, written on the field,
shows facility in versifying and marked literary skill, and is specially valuable as being through-
out a sincere, straightforward expression of the thoughts and emotions that occur to the mind
of such a one as has been indicated. There is no vaunting in these verses. There is an occa-
sional note of sadness, but throughout, also, there is deep-based cheerfulness." Scotsman.

" Here, again, is a poet-soldier who is glad he got the M.C. because it proves that ' fellows
who write verse are not softies.' Captain Stewart is of the same breed as so many others, open-
eyed to all the misery, self-critical in the presence of danger, but enduring to the end. His
poem, ' I Was Afraid of Fear,' voices the dread of all the imaginative and is so simple and
honest that it might well give them courage." Glasgow Herald.