The wind of a mane and a tail, and four But he's never had anything to eat! ADDENDUM Really hungry! Good Lord deliver us, John Hall Wheelock John Hall Wheelock was born at Far Rockaway, Long Island, in 1886. He was graduated from Harvard, receiving his B.A. in 1908, and finished his studies at the Universities of Göttingen and Berlin, 1908-10. Wheelock's first book is, in many respects, his best. The Human Fantasy (1911) sings with the voice of youth-a youth which is vibrantly in love with existence. Rhapsodic and obviously influenced by Whitman and Henley, these lines beat bravely. A headlong ecstasy rises from pages whose refrain is "Splendid it is to live and glorious to die." SUNDAY EVENING IN THE COMMON Look-on the topmost branches of the world One breathless moment now the city's moaning Fades, and the endless streets seem vague and dim; There is no sound around the whole world's rim, Save in the distance a small band is droning Some desolate old hymn. Van Wyck, how often have we been together LOVE AND LIBERATION Lift your arms to the stars You are armed with love, with love, Nor all the powers of Fate What of good and evil, Joyce Kilmer (Alfred) Joyce Kilmer was born at New Brunswick, New Jersey, December 6, 1886. He was graduated from Rutgers College in 1904 and received his A.B. from Columbia in 1906. The In 1917 Kilmer joined the Officers' Reserve Training Corps, but he soon resigned from this. In less than three weeks after America entered the world war, he enlisted as a private in the Seventh Regiment, National Guard, New York. On July 28, 1918, the five-day battle for the mastery of the heights beyond the river Ourcq was begun. Two days later, Sergeant Kilmer was killed in action. Death came before the poet had developed or even matured his gifts. His first volume, Summer of Love (1911), is wholly imitative; it is full of reflections of a dozen other sources, "a broken bundle of mirrors." Trees and Other Poems (1914) contains the title-poem by which Kilmer is best known and, though various influences are here, a refreshing candor lights up the lines. Main Street and Other Poems (1917) is less derivative; the simplicity is less self-conscious, the ecstasy more spontaneous. TREES' I think that I shall never see A tree whose hungry mouth is prest A tree that looks at God all day, A tree that may in summer wear Upon whose bosom snow has lain; Poems are made by fools like me, 1From Trees and Other Poems by Joyce Kilmer. Copyright, 1914, by George H. Doran Company, Publishers. 1 MARTIN 1 When I am tired of earnest men, Or counting metal discs forever, Still on his delicate pale face A quizzical thin smile is showing, He wears a brilliant-hued cravat, A suit to match his soft gray hair, A manner blithe and debonair. How good, that he who always knew Should have gold halls to wander through To leave those halls of splendid mirth Some people ask: What cruel chance 'From Trees and Other Poems by Joyce Kilmer. Copyright, 1914, by George H. Doran Company, Publishers. A fleck of sunlight in the street, A horse, a book, a girl who smiled,— Because it was old Martin's lot To be, not make, a decoration, Orrick Johns Orrick Johns was born at St. Louis, Missouri, in 1887. He schooled himself to be an advertising copy writer, his creative work being kept as an avocation. Asphalt and Other Poems (1917) is a queer mixture. Cheap stanzas crowd against lines of singular beauty. The same peculiarity is evident in Black Branches (1920), where much that is strained and artificial mingles with poetry that is not only spontaneous but searching. At his best, notably in the refreshing "Country Rhymes," Johns is a true and poignant singer. THE INTERPRETER In the very early morning when the light was low Like snow in the springtime on a sunny hill, And we were only frightened and can't think still. We can't think quite that the katydids and frogs |