Collection of Advocate Poems Issued

At the close of each decade of its history it has been the custom of the Advocate to issue a book of the best verses from the numbers of the past ten years. Such a volume was brought out in '76, and another in '86. In '96 the book was a collection of stories. Today the fourth of the series will be issued from the press of Houghton, Mifflin & Co. This will be an anthology of verses from the Advocates of the past twenty years, and represents the best early work of such men as William Vaughn Moody '93, Bliss Carman and Lloyd McKim Garrison '88, in fact, the index is plentifully sprinkled with the names of men who have since made literary reputations.

The selections have a strong spice of college flavor, and especially of that period of the College when all the undergraduates knew one another and the College papers had not acquired too much dignity to enjoy running a few pointed personal "roasts." Again, many of the selections are decidedly above the average of undergraduate verse, for instance, Garrison's poem "On the Skull Ensconced in a College Room" which is doubly sinister when one remembers the early death of that promising poet.

Mr. Flandran also appears as a writer of verse in two vigorous sonnets, both about athletes, for whom, in his latter work he has shown such a predilection. However, the story goes that the Advocate board in his day was fonder of crisp and witty prose and rather peppery editorials than of poetry, though it sometimes sat down--not without sarcastic comments--to grind out verses for the popular demand.

The new anthology, besides containing some work of surprising freshness and originality, affords peeps into the quaint and fussy Harvard of our fathers and uncles, and guesses at the interiors of certain dormitory rooms which are well known.