The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1902-05-18
: AN AMERICANA AT OXFORD.
a BOOK OF TIMELY INTEREST
Omar Khayyam, Jr--By Wallace Irwin.
So Elder and Shepherd. San Francisco.

lyNIN
Omar Khayyam, Jr--By Wallace Irwin.
Elder and Shepherd, San Francisco.
so cents.
B Perhaps one OF the clevcrst things In
that epoch making Joke. The Love son
nets OF 8 Eoodium." was An. Inside Con
TO Refined Guys. q bit Of PREDATORY jim
gle. which was typical of all the con-
densed sauciness OF Wallace Twins an-s
tic Muse. It comes rather as shock
TO u.s. then to- note that Wallace Irwin
Z has become himself a refined guy and
has cut out slang altogether in his latest
book, THE Rubaiyat Of Omar hhayyam.
.J...s, This daring poem is couched
in the most exalted language. There is
no half way business about Mr.. Irwin.
1Nl,e:, he is noodium his ragtime voca-
buIas% is sufficiently syncopated to make
Mr.. Ado appear. almost commonplace but.
when he becomes a refined guy the
sensuous par!ance of Swinburne is mere
slnnss by comparison.
When the Hcod!um.s book came before
the public it carried a moro direct mess.
sage. perhaps. than many a moro serious
work ever dared to carry. It showed us
convincingly how the long revcrenced
sonnet could become an easy mark and
o carry all for brain fag wrecks" and
It will live as protest against the use
5 OF the sonnet form as q vehicle for medic
ere thought. THE Rubaiyat of Omar
Kllayyam, Jr..'. too. has brought clat-
ter OF railIcry about the heads OF the
tmitators who will not let f1tzgeralds
beautiful translation alone.
Omar Khayyam. Jr.. seems to have been
an inyeterAte smoker anu 4 gay dog with
the women. II Fitzgerald's Omar took
his inspiration from wine twins Omar
certainly owed much Of his poetic frenzy
to The narcotic effects OF tobacco. for
the books abounds in praises OF S1e weed
and many of these lines one cannot hep
hdInirig FOR their real poetic beauty
s.Mark how Havana's sensous-philtred
Mead
Dispels the cackling hag o. night at Need,
And. foggy-aureoied, tho Smoke reveals
Tine Poppy Flowers that blossom from
the Weed
Between Smoke and Kisses the poets
love seems to- be about equally divided.
as note the following:
"a fnicrobo fingers in a Kiss. you say?
Yes, but he nibbles in a pleasant Way
Rather than in the Pipe and Telephone
Better to catch him kissing and be gay
The unusual construction Of these ru-
baiyat are worth studying. AS a rule
they start out with the most poetic in
tentions, keep up the lick for two or
IHreS QIlcS, ltlSu COiuS dpHiA d. AlIS ldSI
with a bang, turnbling the reader out of
The balloon Of ideality and anding him
with bump on the rude soil of reality.
This is done so skillfully that you for
give the author at once and are ready
to take another Gall with every new
stanza. For example:
ST can forgive the Oaf who nothing
knows
land glories in the Bubbles that he blows
Ard while you wresne blindly with the
World
he whistles on his Fingers and his
Toes"
Mr. Irwin whistles on his Fingers and
his Toes and does other surprising gym
nastics which tend to add to the gayety
of literature. The Love Sonnets Of a
Eoodlum'' was a bright promise, and the
Rubaiyat of Omar khayyam. Jr.. is GER
tafnly well on the road to fulfilment. The
book is aptiy illustrated by eight startling
freak drawings of Gclett Burgess, and
IS made complete by set of slyly POM
I,ous notes which are a satire on all the
schools. .ts
An American at Oxford. By John Cor1jr.
11oughton. Mifflin & CO., Boston, Mass.
Price, S1.50 net
The timely appearance of this book is
nothing less than remarkable. The en-
lightened times are full of zeal for edu-
cation, and it is being realized more and
more that our assimilative system will
b. better for heavier draughts from our
original English universities to offset
continuation of the present preponderance
Of German methods; also it gives us ma
feria1 for debating the terms Of the viii
of the late Cecil Rhodes.
By a curious coincidence, this book has
appeared almost instantly with the pub
eication of Mr.. Rhodes will, which provides
that each Of the United States is forever
TO be represented at Oxford by two care
fully selected undergraduate students.
Whatever our opinions as to the pro-
friety of American youth being educated
in an English college and what final eff
feet that will have upon both countries
there can be no doubt, after reading Mr..
Corkin's book, that Oxford gives its un-l
dergraduates a very sensibly ordered and
Inyigcrating education.
It will be somewhat Of a revelation to
many American readers that Oxford is
not merely a scholastic, even a monastc,
institution. devoted to classic studies and
very far from a training school for prac-
teal life, such as Americans are bred
TO anticipate. It is evident from this
description OF 1t that Oxford Is more a
school for gentlemen and scholars than
one for rougher occupations. pro-
duCeS statesmen, Tor instance, rainier thdu
tecllnologists. Oxonians claim that it
has manned the British Empire.
Mr.. Corbin thinks it would be harm
ful mistake to send unbroker young
.Amerscans over to be made Englishmen
of ut oxford University.
Even if the educational and residential
facilities afforded at oxford were on the
whcle superior to those Of American Uni
vers:ties, which they are not he re-
marks. ''the difference could not COM
1,ensa.e the student for the loss Of his
American University course With all 1t
means Informing lifelong friendships
among his countrymen, and in assilnilat-
sng tie national spirit. II, however. the
Oxford scholarships were awarded TO re-
cent graduates of American Universities,
the greatest advantage might result
The hook was most Of it written while
the author was III residence in Ba!liol
college, some six years ago. and its in
innate pictures OF Oxford life are most
interesting.
The personnel of the undergraduate body
and their relations with school and the
various faculties: OF the social l:fe; oc
Oxford out Of doors: and of the prot-
yerns t,f flie American University or ne-