New-York tribune., 1918-02-17

FROM I2e
DoETs are queer beings, in the opin-
ion of more normal souls; but there
are degrees Of queerness. Some fol-
lowers of Musaus wear usual clothes, pay
routine calls on tonsorial artists, even
boast of the ability to purchase Liberty
bonds. And there are those who do none
of these. Miss Lowell's classification of
Tendencies in Modern American Poetry"
spreads a benignant arm around the Ima-
gists; but even her charitable reach
stopped short of the weird step-brothers
and sisters of that movement-the
"Others" group. grandfathered by Ezra
Pound, sired by Alfred Kreymborg, and
certainly not damned by those who enjoy a
good chucke at human oddity.
Out of Guido Bruno's Garret on Wash
ington Square, in the February after the
Great War started, came Chap Book
headed "Mushrooms: Alfred Kreymborg."
This should not be chronicled among the
atrocities of war; but it marked, perhaps,
the birth of the new movement. Five
months later "Others: A Magazine of the
New Verse;" made its ochre bow from a
glutted magazine market. The first voice
-rhythming in the wilderness was here
Joined by four more-Mina Loy Orrick
Johns, Horace Holley, and Mary Carolyn
Davies The naming evidently came from
the great American watchword "There are
others"
THE most popular comedian on the
L. cnematic stage, Charlie Chaplin, is
famous because he does such queer things
with his feet. These versifers excel in
the same way.
France has long been the noisy battle
ground of rival schools of poetry. The
Anglo-Saxon way is different; no loud
pronunciamento heralds new flock of
rhythmists. SO the "Others" began, and
proceeded quietly upon the even tenor, and
occasional youthful treble, of their way
Ferdinand Reyher, in the first book, offers
a moderate prelude and programme, en-
titled "Others":
We will sit in spiders corners
And lure shadows into game
TO do we wish
Vowels opening like salmon parasols
Against green embroidery,
Consonants that chime
AS clearly as Rhine glasses clinkng.
Before we elevate fully the salmon para
sol vowels, or clink the consonants, there
are few exotic "Olives" of Orrck Johns
that deserve a nibble:
Oh, beautiful mind,
I lost it
In a lot of frying pans
And calendars and carpets
And beer bottles
Oh, my beautiful mind!
Passing from this sincere autobiography
ical note, we come to genre character
study:
Miggles-
That his name.
Everybody always said,
"Mgges did it,"
I admired you from the beginning,
Oh, Miggles,
Miggles!
Who could resist such a panegyric? Or
this casual treatment Of a less apparent
theme
Blue undershirts,
Upon a line,
1t is not necessary to say to YOU
Anything about it
What they do
What they might do blue under.
shirts.
The combination school of poetry! The
paternal Kreymborg eulogizes, in jollier
mood
The pantaloons dancing,
dancing thru the night,
pure white pantaloons,
underneath the moon,
jolly wash line.
skipping from my room,
to Miranda,
who washed them this noon.
DOWN with rigid laws of rime! Down
- with initial capitals! Into the dis
card with sequence of ideas and logic, too,
If we follow Miss 10y, Marianne Moore,
Walter Conrad Arensberg, and their like
Miss 10y obliges us with "Love Sing"
beginning
Spawn of fantasies
Sitting the appraisablo
Pig Cupid his rosy snout
Roofing erotic garbage
Pulls weed white star-topped
Among wild oats sown in mucous membrane
would an eye in Bengal light
A new note, at last, in the worlds amor
Gus chorus. She sings later of
Those eyes
OF Petronila Lucia Letiza
Felcita
Orsola Geltrude Caterina Delina
Zta Bibiana Tarsila
Eufemia
These lines are burler vers libre version
OF the "Recapitulation" of the French Par
nassian, M. Catulle Mendes, beginning
Rose Emmeline