Advocate Filled With Good Poetry

Once upon a time, and not so very long ago either, the task of separating an average undergraduate from a bit of acceptable verse was well-nigh hopeless. Yet we find that of the eighteen contributions to the current Advocate all but four are verses, and one of the four is an appreciation of Amy Lowell. And several of these are rather more than acceptable. This is hardly the place for a discussion of modern poetry, but such a situation cannot escape comment. How the times have changed!--or is it merely the result of a long and assiduous storing up!

In ruminating on the poetry of Miss Lowell, Mr. McComb rejoices that the enlightened have been won over to vers libre, and that dreary disputations about form have ended. This seems somewhat during. In the first place it implies that vers libre is an innovation, whereas as far back as Milton--but that is neither here nor there. And in the second place isn't form all-important anyway? For snatches of life, for casual comments, for detached thoughts that would not be improved by reaching symmetrical harmony, vers libre may be quite in keeping. But that is only saying that for certain types of verse the best form is a lack of form. There is always the dangerous temptation to express in free verse thoughts that might be more perfectly expressed otherwise. And it is that danger that has led some unkind people to characterize free verse as a vehicle for half-baked thoughts.

Mr. Cowley's lines "To a Girl I Dislike" furnish an admirable example of the proper use of vers libre, and all in all the best in the number. In the light of the title the whole might be more subtly forceful without the last two lines, for they are distinctly anticlimatic. Mr. Garrison's venture into formless verse is likewise successful, but the other two representatives of this school were better undone.

The other poetical contributions are on more convential lines. Some are marred by metrical defects, and some by vagueness of idea, but all make pleasant reading, and there is occasionally a flash of unusual felicity. One particularly happy feature is the timeliness of most of them.

The single piece of fiction, Mr. Gazzam's "Tall Golden Moon" is sadly deficient in structure, and is indigestible as a story. It starts out with an apparent purpose, only to wind up nowhere in particular, without attaining that purpose or any other worth mentioning.

On the whole this number of the Advocate is immensely interesting. It could not be expected to be entirely good, but the preponderance of good over bad is decidedly encouraging. All of the contributions are worth reading; many of them are worth remembering. And that is more than can be said for the contents of many college magazines.