Poems in Pictures

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The five poems of the series have, in order, "Love," "Bereavement," "Friendship," "Meeting and Parting" and "War" as the subjects. Three of these are pastoral, namely, the first, third and fourth. "Love" is the form of an eclogue; "Friendship" is purely pastoral, while "Meeting and Parting" forms an idyll. The reader will understand, of course, that a pastoral poem treats of scenes and incidents in rural, or country life, as apart from community, or city life, and that the characters in the earliest forms or this composition were shepherds, due to the fact that the primitive occupation of the dwellers In the country was that of tending to flocks and herds of sheep and cattle. He will understand, too, that an eclogue is a choice, picked selection from pastoral poems, and that an idyll is a short, highly wrought, descriptive pastoral poem, in which the episodes, or circumstances, are of rural simplicity and coloring. And so, with these few words of introduction, let us view the pictures. All these scenes are beautifully colored and the photography is excellent. The characters, too, are cleverly enacted. The effect produced by seeing the pictures for the first time is likely to be one of regret that they cannot at once be repeated. I believe in this case, that patrons will consider it a boon should exhibitors run the reel off for the second time, say after an appropriate song has been sung to afford a short interlude. The reel is only 400 feet in length, but it has so much of beauty, art and satisfying merit that one cannot grasp its full meaning and worth at one showing.