Criticism > Poetry > Thoreau, Henry David - Francis H. Allen (review date 1945)

Thoreau, Henry David - Francis H. Allen (review date 1945)

Francis H. Allen (review date 1945)

SOURCE: “Thoreau's Collected Poems,” in American Literature, Vol. 17, No. 1, March 1945, pp. 260-67.

[In the following review of Carl Bode's 1943 edition of Thoreau's Collected Poems, Allen points out minor textual inaccuracies in the volume but in general finds Bode's edition otherwise to be a fine scholarly effort.]

In reviewing in November, 1943, the Collected Poems of Henry Thoreau, edited by Carl Bode, American Literature gave the book the commendation it so richly deserved, but, except at a single point, did not consider it critically in detail. I hope it is not too late for a few more critical remarks about this admirable but not impeccable piece of work.

A few weeks ago a member of the staff of the Library of Congress asked me whether I thought the poem “Carpe Diem,” printed over the signature H. T. in the Boatswain's Whistle for November 16, 1864, was...

[The entire page is 2867 words long]

Join eNotes

The above is a free excerpt. Get total access to this content with the: