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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 September 2009
John McClure. “Literature and Less.” New Orleans Times-Picayune, January 25, 1925, Magazine Section, p. 6.
It is doubtful if there are a dozen thoroughly successful long poems in English. When a young poet attempts sustained production he is under Lloyd's or anybody's averages, predestined to failure. The most he can hope for, even if his name is Keats, is to fail with honor. Mr. William Faulkner, a Southern poet from whom we shall hear a great deal in future, has failed, it seems to this reviewer, but with real honor.
The Marble Faun, by William Faulkner, with a preface by Phil Stone, although not a completely successful work, is a book of verse rich in promise, and successful in part.
The candled flames of roses here
Gutter gold in this still air
is a couplet of fine poetry if this reviewer ever saw one. And The Marble Faun contains scores of excellent passages. The book, with all its immaturity, proves that Mr. Faulkner is a born poet, with remarkable ability.
This poem was written when its author was barely of voting age. It is the forerunner of a more mature volume of shorter poems which will be brought out this year. That volume of later work should contain some genuinely excellent sustained productions. The excellencies of The Marble Faun are sporadic: charming couplets or passages sandwiched between stretches of creditable but not remarkable verse. The general effect of the poem is vague. It is a prophetic book, rather than a chronicle of past performance. Mr. Faulkner possesses to an exceptional degree imagination, emotion, a creative impulse in diction and a keen sense of rhythm and form–all attributes demanded of a fine poet.
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