SOURCE: "Mr. Belloc's Verses," in The Times Literary Supplement, November 8, 1923, p. 744.

In the following essay, the critic offers a mixed review of the poems comprising Sonnets and Verses.

Mr. Belloc, who has been of our times one of the most copious writers in prose, has issued, apart from skits and books for children, only three volumes of verse. The first, which soon disappeared, handed on some pieces to the second; the second is now superseded by this third, which includes it and some new poems. Therefore he, agod fifty-three, presents to us as a lifetime's work in verse, some hundred and sixty pages and a hundred odd pieces, many of which are very short. It is obvious, however, that is not a mere pastime for him, but something which he takes with great seriousness, as well as with much exuberance of spirit. One is moved to see what...