Pattern of a Day
By
$2.OO
KNOPF
IN a poem called ‘Unregimented,’ Robert Hillyer writes,
Who calls on poets to espouse a cause
Knows little Plato, less of Nature’s laws,
Knows little Plato, less of Nature’s laws,
and he confesses himself an inveterate and incorrigible neutral,
Freed of all obligations to enlist
On any side, triumphant Quietist.
On any side, triumphant Quietist.
But this does not mean that Mr. Hillyer stands aside entirely from the modern world in aesthetic isolation. The majority of these poems are light lyrical and conversation pieces, containing delicate appraisals of natural beauty, or ironic comments on some of the common weaknesses of mankind; but the sonnet sequence ‘In Time of Mistrust’ has a more serious content. Here Mr. Hillyer ‘speaks out,’ and though his message is the old one that the spirit alone can regenerate a world brought to disaster by greed, violence, apathy, and cowardice, he restates the traditional values with direct simplicity and a wholehearted conviction of their truth.