Part 2
The action in Mr. Rice's dramas is invariably compact and powerful, his writing remarkably forcible and clear, with a rare grasp of form. The plays are brief and classic. _Baltimore News._
These four dramas, each a separate unit perfect in itself and differing widely in treatment, are yet vitally related by reason of the one central theme, wrought out with rich imagery and with compelling dramatic power. _The Louisville Times (U. S.)_
The literary and poetical merit of these dramas is undeniable, and they are charged with the emotional life and human interest that should, but do not, always go along with those other high gifts. _The (London) Bookman._
Mr. Rice never [like Stephen Phillips] mistakes strenuous phrase for strong thought. He makes his blank verse his servant, and it has the stage merit of possessing the freedom of prose while retaining the impassioned movement of poetry. _The Glasgow (Scotland) Herald._
These firm and vivid pieces of work are truly welcome as examples of poetic force that succeeds without the help of poetic license. _The Literary World (London.)_
We do not possess a living American poet whose utterance is so clear, so felicitous, so free from the inane and meretricious folly of sugared lines.... No one has a better understanding of the development of dramatic action than Mr. Rice. _The Book News Monthly (Albert S. Henry.)_
COUNTRY LIFE IN AMERICA
THE WORLD'S WORK
THE GARDEN MAGAZINE
DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & CO., GARDEN CITY, N. Y.
MANY GODS
By
CALE YOUNG RICE
"These poems are flashingly, glowingly full of the East.... What I am sure of in Mr. Rice is that here we have an American poet whom we may claim as ours." _The North American Review (William Dean Howells)._
"Mr. Rice has the gift of leadership ... and he is a force with whom we must reckon." _The Boston Transcript._
... "We find here a poet who strives to reach the goal which marks the best that can be done in poetry." _The Book News Monthly (A. S. Henry)._
"When you hear the pessimists bewailing the good old time when real poets were abroad in the land ... do not fail to quote them almost anything by Cale Young Rice, a real poet writing to-day.... He has done so much splendid work one can scarcely praise him too highly." _The San Francisco Call._
"In 'Many Gods' the scenes are those of the East, and while it is not the East of Loti, Arnold or Hearn, it is still a place of brooding, majesty, mystery and subtle fascination. There is a temptation to quote such verses for their melody, dignity of form, beauty of imagery and height of inspiration." _The Chicago Journal._
"'Love's Cynic' (a long poem in the volume) might be by Browning at his best." _Pittsburg Gazette-Times._
"This is a serious, and from any standpoint, a successful piece of work ... in it are poems that will become classic." _Passaic (New Jersey) News._
"Mr. Rice must be hailed as one among living masters of his art, one to whom we may look for yet greater things." _Presbyterian Advance._
"This book is in many respects a remarkable work. The poems are indeed poems." _The Nashville Banner._
"Mr. Rice's poetical plays reach a high level of achievement.... But these poems show a higher vision and surer mastery of expression than ever before." _The London Bookman._
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NIRVANA DAYS
Poems by
CALE YOUNG RICE
"Mr. Rice has the technical cunning that makes up almost the entire equipment of many poets nowadays, but human nature is more to him always ... and he has the feeling and imaginative sympathy without which all poetry is but an empty and vain thing." _The London Bookman._
"Mr. Rice's note is a clarion call, and of his two poems, 'The Strong Man to His Sires' and 'The Young to the Old,' the former will send a thrill to the heart of every man who has the instinct of race in his blood, while the latter should be printed above the desk of every minor poet and pessimist.... The sonnets of the sequence, 'Quest and Requital,' have the elements of great poetry in them." _The Glasgow (Scotland) Herald._
"Mr. Rice's poems are singularly free from affectation, and he seems to have written because of the sincere need of expressing something that had to take art form." _The Sun (New York)._
"The ability to write verse that scans is quite common.... But the inspired thought behind the lines is a different thing; and it is this thought untrammeled--the clear vision searching into the deeps of human emotion--which gives the verse of Mr. Rice weight and potency.... In the range of his metrical skill he easily stands with the best of living craftsmen ... and we have in him ... a poet whose dramas and lyrics will endure." _The Book News Monthly (A. S. Henry)._
"These poems are marked by a breadth of outlook, individuality and beauty of thought. The author reveals deep, sincere feeling on topics which do not readily lend themselves to artistic expression and which he makes eminently worth while." _The Buffalo (N. Y.) Courier._
"We get throughout the idea of a vast universe and of the soul merging itself in the infinite.... The great poem of the volume, however, is 'The Strong Man to His Sires.'" _The Louisville Post (Margaret S. Anderson)._
"The poems possess much music ... and even in the height of intensified feeling the clearness of Mr. Rice's ideas is not dimmed by the obscure haze that too often goes with the divine fire." _The Boston Globe._
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A NIGHT IN AVIGNON
By
CALE YOUNG RICE
_Successfully produced by Donald Robertson_
"It is as vivid as a Page From Browning. Mr. Rice has the dramatic pulse." _James Huneker._
"It embraces in small compass all the essentials of the drama." _New York Saturday Times Review (Jessie B. Rittenhouse)._
"It presents one of the most striking situations in dramatic literature and its climax could not be improved." _The San Francisco Call._
"It has undeniable power, and is a very decided poetic achievement." _The Boston Transcript._
"It leaves an enduring impression of a soul tragedy." _The Churchman._
"Since the publication of his 'Charles di Tocca' and other dramas, Cale Young Rice has justly been regarded as a leading American master of that difficult form, and many critics have ranked him above Stephen Phillips, at least on the dramatic side of his art. And this judgment is further confirmed by 'A Night in Avignon.' It is almost incredible that in less than 500 lines Mr. Rice should have been able to create so perfect a play with so powerful a dramatic effect." _The Chicago Record-Herald (Edwin S. Shuman)._
"There is poetic richness in this brilliant composition; a beauty of sentiment and grace in every line. It is impressive, metrically pleasing and dramatically powerful." _The Philadelphia Record._
"It offers one of the most striking situations in dramatic literature." _The Louisville Courier-Journal._
"The publication of a poetic drama of the quality of Mr. Rice's is an important event in the present tendency of American literature. He is a leader in this most significant movement, and 'A Night in Avignon' is marked, like his other plays, by dramatic directness, high poetic fervor, clarity of poetic diction, and felicity of phrasing." _The Chicago Journal._
"It is a dramatically told episode, and the metre is most effectively handled, making a welcome change for blank verse, and greatly enhancing the interest." _Sydney Lee._
"Many critics, on hearing Mr. Bryce's prediction that America will one day have a poet, would be tempted to remind him of Mr. Rice." _The Hartford (Conn.) Courant._
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YOLANDA OF CYPRUS
A Poetic Drama by
CALE YOUNG RICE
"It has real life and drama, not merely beautiful words, and so differs from the great mass of poetic plays." _Prof. Gilbert Murray._
Minnie Maddern Fisk says: "No one can doubt that it is superior poetically and dramatically to Stephen Phillips's work," and that Mr. Rice ranks with Mr. Phillips at his best has often been reaffirmed.
"It is encouraging to the hope of a native drama to know that an American has written a play which is at the same time of decided poetic merit and of decided dramatic power." _The New York Times._
"The most remarkable quality of the play is its sustained dramatic strength. Poetically it is frequently of great beauty. It is also lofty in conception, lucid and felicitous in style, and the dramatic pulse throbs in every line." _The Chicago Record-Herald._
"The characters are drawn with force and the play is dignified and powerful," and adds that if it does not succeed on the stage it will be "because of its excellence." _The Springfield Republican._
"Mr. Rice is one of the few present-day poets who have the steadiness and weight for a well-sustained drama." _The Louisville Post (Margaret Anderson)._
"It has equal command of imagination, dramatic utterance, picturesque effectiveness and metrical harmony." _The London (England) Bookman._
_T. P.'s Weekly_ says: "It might well stand the difficult test of production and will be welcomed by all who care for serious verse."
_The Glasgow (Scotland) Herald_ says: "Yolanda of Cyprus is finely constructed; the irregular blank verse admirably adapted for the exigencies of intense emotion; the characters firmly drawn; and the climax serves the purpose of good stagecraft and poetic justice."
"It is well constructed and instinct with dramatic power." _Sydney Lee._
"It is as readable as a novel." _The Pittsburg Post._
"Here and there an almost Shakespearean note is struck. In makeup, arrangement, and poetic intensity it ranks with Stephen Phillips's work." _The Book News Monthly._
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COUNTRY LIFE IN AMERICA
THE WORLD'S WORK
THE GARDEN MAGAZINE
DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & CO., GARDEN CITY, N. Y.
DAVID
A Poetic Drama by
CALE YOUNG RICE
"I was greatly impressed with it and derived a sense of personal encouragement from the evidence of so fine and lofty a product for the stage." _Richard Mansfield._
"It is a powerful piece of dramatic portraiture in which Cale Young Rice has again demonstrated his insight and power. What he did before in 'Charles di Tocca' he has repeated and improved upon.... Not a few instances of his strength might be cited as of almost Shakespearean force. Indeed the strictly literary merit of the tragedy is altogether extraordinary. It is a contribution to the drama full of charm and power." _The Chicago Tribune._
"From the standpoint of poetry, dignity of conception, spiritual elevation and finish and beauty of line, Mr. Rice's 'David' is, perhaps, superior to his 'Yolanda of Cyprus,' but the two can scarcely be compared." _The New York Times (Jessie B. Rittenhouse)._
"Never before has the theme received treatment in a manner so worthy of it." _The St. Louis Globe-Democrat._
"It needs but a word, for it has been passed upon and approved by critics all over the country." _Book News Monthly._ And again: "But few recent writers seem to have found the secret of dramatic blank verse; and of that small number, Mr. Rice is, if not first, at least without superior."
"With instinctive dramatic and poetic power, Mr. Rice combines a knowledge of the exigencies of the stage." _Harper's Weekly._
"It is safe to say that were Mr. Rice an Englishman or a Frenchman, his reputation as his country's most distinguished poetic dramatist would have been assured by a more universal sign of recognition." _The Baltimore News (writing of all Mr. Rice's plays)._
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CHARLES DI TOCCA
By
CALE YOUNG RICE
"I take off my hat to Mr. Rice. His play is full of poetry, and the pitch and dignity of the whole are remarkable." _James Lane Allen._
"It is a dramatic poem one reads with a heightened sense of its fine quality throughout. It is sincere, strong, finished and noble, and sustains its distinction of manner to the end.... The character of Helena is not unworthy of any of the great masters of dramatic utterance." _The Chicago Tribune._
"The drama is one of the best of the kind ever written by an American author. Its whole tone is masterful, and it must be classed as one of the really literary works of the season." (1903). _The Milwaukee Sentinel._
"It shows a remarkable sense of dramatic construction as well as poetic power and strong characterization." _James MacArthur, in Harper's Weekly._
"This play has many elements of perfection. Its plot is developed with ease and with a large dramatic force; its characters are drawn with sympathy and decision; and its thoughts rise to a very real beauty. By reason of it the writer has gained an assured place among playwrights who seek to give literary as well as dramatic worth to their plays." _The Richmond (Va.) News-Leader._
"The action of the play is admirably compact and coherent, and it contains tragic situations which will afford pleasure not only to the student, but to the technical reader." _The Nation._
"It is the most powerful, vital, and truly tragical drama written by an American for some years. There is genuine pathos, mighty yet never repellent passion, great sincerity and penetration, and great elevation and beauty of language." _The Chicago Post._
"Mr. Rice ranks among America's choicest poets on account of his power to turn music into words, his virility, and of the fact that he has something of his own to say." _The Boston Globe._
"The whole play breathes forth the indefinable spirit of the Italian renaissance. In poetic style and dramatic treatment it is a work of art." _The Baltimore Sun._
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SONG-SURF
(Being the Lyrics of Plays and Lyrics) by
CALE YOUNG RICE
"Mr. Rice's work betrays wide sympathies with nature and life, and a welcome originality of sentiment and metrical harmony." _Sydney Lee._
"In his lyrics Mr. Rice's imagination works most successfully. He is an optimist--and in these days an optimist is irresistible--and he can touch delicately things too holy for a rough or violent pathos." _The London Star (James Douglas)._
"Mr. Rice's highest gift is essentially lyrical. His lyrics have a charm and grace of melody distinctively their own." _The London Bookman._
"Mr. Rice is keenly responsive to the loveliness of the outside world, and he reveals this beauty in words that sing themselves." _The Boston Transcript._
"Mr. Rice's work is everywhere marked by true imaginative power and elevation of feeling." _The Scotsman._
"Mr. Rice's work would seem to rank with the best of our American poets of to-day." _The Atlanta Constitution._
"Mr. Rice's poems are touched with the magic of the muse. They have inspiration, grace and true lyric quality." _The Book News Monthly._
"Mr. Rice's poetry as a whole is both strongly and delicately spiritual. Many of these lyrics have the true romantic mystery and charm.... To write thus is no indifferent matter. It indicates not only long work but long brooding on the beauty and mystery of life." _The Louisville Post._
"Mr. Rice is indisputably one of the greatest poets who have lived in America.... And some of these (earlier) poems are truly beautiful." _The Times-Union (Albany, N. Y.)_
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Transcriber's Notes:
Text in italics is indicated with underscores: _italics_.
Punctuation has been corrected without note.
The letter o with a macron on page 17 is indicated by [=o]