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From the Hidden Way

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This book could have been titled, "The Last Troubadour." In this collection of poems, the poet turns his back on his own time and draws upon themes of the medieval and renaissance eras: the certainty of death, the pain of unrequited love, the retelling of ancient history and legends, commentaries upon abstractions, nostalgia for departed youth and fairer seasons, and faith tempered with a sense of defeat. These quotations from the collection provide a sense of the whole: "My master, how wide is the gulf between, That which we are and what might have been." "But Yesterday! for Yesterday! I cry a reward for a Yesterday, Now lost or stolen or gone astray, With all the laughter of Yesterday!" "I am contented by remembrances,-- Dreams of dead passions, wraiths of vanished times, Fragments of vows, and by-ends of old rhymes,--Flotsam and jetsam tumbling in the seas Whereon, long since, put forth our argosies Which, launched for traffic in the Isles of Love, Lie foundered somewhere in some firth thereof, Encradled by eternal silence." In a subtle personal note, JBC evaluated his choice of work as a writer in the poem titled, "The Toy-Maker." It ends: "WHO, you ask, IS THIS FELLOW?--What matter names? He is only a scribbler who is content." Sometime between 1920 and 1922, in the "Yale Literary Review," J. A. Thomas categorized Cabell as "a writer for the elect--but for the elect of all time." For those, who want to get perspective on James Branch Cabell and his work, and evaluate the generalization of J. A. Thomas, the following books would be helpful. It is suggested that the books be read in the order listed: 1 Cabell, James Branch, AS I REMEMBER IT. 1955: NYC: Robert M. McBride & Co.; 2 Wagenknecht, Edward (Editor), THE LETTERS OF JAMES BRANCH CABELL. 1975, Norman, OK: U. of Oklahoma Press; 3 Van Doren, Carl, JAMES BRANCH CABELL. 1932, NYC: The Literary Guild; 4 MacDonald, Edgar, JAMES BRANCH CABELL and Richmond-in-Virginia. 1993, Jackson, MS, U. Press of Mississippi; 5 Rascoe, Burton, BEFORE I FORGET. 1937, Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Co., Inc.; 6 Rascoe, Burton, WE WERE INTERRUPTED. 1947, Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Co., Inc.; 7 Starett, Vincent, BORN IN A BOOKSHOP. 1965, Norman, OK: U. of Oklahoma Press.