SOURCE: “In the Line of Herrick,” in The Saturday Review of Literature, Vol. III, No. 1, July 31, 1926, p. 7.

In the following review of The Selected Poems of Lizette Woodworth Reese, Colum praises Reese as innovative and remarks on her handling of traditional poetic forms, particularly the sonnet.

Frank Harris, as he has recorded, judged H. L. Mencken to be a whimsical critic of poetry because of his praise of Lizette Woodworth Reese's poems. “She has written more sound poetry, more genuinely eloquent and beautiful poetry, than all the new poets put together.” Mencken certainly underrated the work of the new poets. Frank Harris, on the other hand, was wildly wrong when he drew from that statement the conclusion, “Mencken simply doesn’t care for poetry at all.” It happens that he was right when he said that Lizette Woodworth Reese wrote beautiful poetry, and because of this righteous judgment...