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CRIMSON BOOKSHELF

A Book of Danish Verse, Translated by S. Foster Damon and Robert Hillyer. American Scandinavian Foundation, New York: 1922, $2.00.

War-crimsoned forms

Stat-flashing eyes.

For lyric character, the sturdy Danish peasant and healthy Danish girl:

Fair women, comely maids.

Strong men and lads are dwelling

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In Denmark's island glades.

There is Christian Winter with his poignantly brief melodic gesture:

We were so greatly alone.

We and our spirit

But as always the burdened heart, the homesick heart:

O to be Home! to be home in the distant

Beloved coast! . . .

There is Holger Drachmann with his outward insouciance, his interior delight in shocking a folk who secretly delight in being shocked-all cocked into roguishly droll, yet essentially sad, stanzas. The tongue i'-the cheek cannot quite outdo the tear-i'-the-eye:

Hello there! take your ragged hat

Old as the hills and tattered,

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