SOURCE: "Absolution," in The New Republic, Vol. XIV, No. 180, April 13, 1918, pp. 330-31.

In the following review of The Old Huntsman and Other Poems, the critic asserts that Sassoon's war poems are his "true utterance" and that they are superior to the verse in the volume that concerns prewar England.

When John Masefield returned here some months ago he brought praise of Mr. Sassoon's war-poetry. It was a surprise to him that this poetry, published in London in May, 1917, and dedicated to Thomas Hardy, should not yet have reached Americans. Here is the book now, issued in the handsome war-forgetful style conferred on it by Mr. Heinemann; and only a year late.

It is not all war-poetry. Half of the volume contains verse that Mr. Sassoon must have written in the England that is gone. This part of the volume might by itself have made some reputation if there...