PROSE WRITERS OUTSTRIP POETS IN MAY ADVOCATE

I wish the Advocate published a Who's Who of its contributors, in the manner of many periodicals. I found myself unconsciously turning to the end of the present number to discover something concerning Mr. J. N. Leonard, the author of "Derga Fer Rogan". This fantasy, a felicitous combination of wit, satire, and poetic imagination, all compounded with gusto, is one of the best pieces of work I have read in some time. It is, of course, uneven; there are occasional lapses into--well, no, not cheapness, but cleverness. On the whole, however, it is brilliant without being flashy.

The first editorial in this issue very sensibly, I think, insists on the primary need of technique in undergraduate writing;--probably this policy is responsible for the excellence not only of "Derga Fer Rogan," but also of much of the other material. The satire contributed by Mr. John Finley Jr. is a telling reaction against the orgy of triumphant platitude in our industrial life. A deliberate monotony of style that never degenerates into mere burlesque reveals in all its ridiculous solemnity the sentimentalism so dear to readers of the American Magazine and of American magazines in general. This is a convincing and pitiless exposure of sweetness and light. Mr. Oliver La Farge's "A White Man" builds up well to a weak climax; it is a good story but far from this author's best. The single book review, an appreciation by R. L. E. of Arthur Machen's "Hill of Dreams" slips easily into the category of distinguished criticism. With an enthusiasm that never becomes inarticulate or abstract in expression, the reviewer manages to convey to us much of the beauty of the masterpiece he is describing.

Smart's Verse Best in Uneven Group

The poetry in this issue is uneven. Mr. Kenneth Dole's "A Farmer Boy Dreams of Wandering", though pleasantly ringing with sonorous names, fails of any effect but that of looseness. His changing metres do not modulate into one another; they clash roughly, giving the impression that the author has written down at random, without revising, Mr. Smart's "Lines before a Fairy Tale", is wholly delightful; a small bit of decoration provocatively brief. Mr. John Abbott's "Marginal" is also a good picture, but, unfortunately, must join that great body of poems with weary last lines. His "Sonnet for Cynthia", too, dwindles away at the end; the three quatrains are memorable; the couplet is, in my opinion, artificial and irrelevant. Neither of these poems represents Mr. Abbott at his best. Another sonnet, contributed by Mr. Herbert Jones, begins well and then surrenders to the difficulties of form, tangling the Swinburnian idea in a mass of involved constructions. Mr. Cozzens's "Two Arts" is a tar more competent piece of work, exhibiting the lyric smoothness we demand of modern sonneteers: it is unfortunate, however, that he had to employ a combination of two weak rhymes in his sextet. In his limpid classic fragment called "Separation", Mr. James Sherry Mangau gives us the poignant sensations of a lover deploring the absence of his Hawatian princess, whose sonorous name appropriately terminates the simple lyric.

Poets Not at Their Best

I have heard most of these poets, at the Harvard Poetry Society, read better verses than those which represent them in this number of the Advocate I do not feel that the present selections are a fair showing of their ability. There is more good verse being written at Harvard now than there has been for number of years. It is for the Advocate to spur the poets on to produce their best, for in this issue, the prose writers out strip the poets a situation almost unheard of in undergraduate letters.  ROBERT HILLYE