The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1919-09-02
MEN, WOMEN
AND THINGS

Awhile back I bought a volume which
| put away until could have more time
to look it over, being William Stanley
Rraithwaite's Anthology of Magazine
Verse for 1915.
Now, I chose to get this number be-
cause 1 knew that it would not be filled
with war poems. Later 1 will be glad
to have collection of them, but had
curiosity to at least skim the peace
time topics before the world saw red.
| Unless you are familiar with the output
of poetry in the magazines its volume
will surprise you. The book 1 hold in
hand has about 300 pages. The selections
reschosen by the editor from an exam
| nation of over % publications. includ-
| ing monthlies, weeklies and daily news
papers.
In 10 magazines alone, with the POS num-
bers, there were published from October,
1914, to September, 1915, a total Of 712
poems, of which, according TO William
Stanley Braithwaite. a specialist in such
verse, $40 poems of distinction. Evil
IDENTIFY the poets we're at their best to
write one good one out of every two
which they got into print.
! 1 was interested to know the batting
average of the various magazines, that
is, to learn what proportion of the verse
published by each got, so to speak,
\ croix de guerre from the able editor.
I give some: The Century, poems pub
lshed g. 80 of distinctiin; Scribners, total
1910 of distinction; The Forum, total
81 20 of distinction: The Smart Set, total
l31. % of distinction; Harper's, total 1870
OF distinction: The Outlook, total 17.12 of
distinction. From this it would appear
| that The Outlook's poems made the
greatest amount of hits with the official
scorer.
| Now, l have always heard that poets
were a sensitive race, and as far as
be judge at a baby show than to try
anw give the palm to poems entered in
contest. My reason being that il l
happened to give the blue ribbon to the
| wrong baby and some irate mother took
exception to my award, at most she
could turn up her nose at my judgment
or give tongue-lashing; but an Offend
| ed writer of verse might embalm me in
a parody
| have no hesitation in here admitting
that make no claims to being a poet.
I do not even pretend that l am a
poetaster, 1 may be willing to take
chance and fly in the air at every OPP
portunity offered, but up to this good
hour / have never had the courage to
| mount Pegasus for fear of being thrown.
The only time I ever lapsed into verse
was in my extreme youth when 1 perpe
trated a dogerel on the Alabama Press
| association when it met at my home town
| of Eufaula.
I received hundreds of poems during
my II years as editor of the Alabama
Baptist, and having a good heart l pub
| lished many which brought down on my
! luckless head the censure of its read
| ers; but at present I am relieved In
passing upon poetry as turn over all
submitted to me to my good friend. Paul
Cook, who knows whether to waste
paper.
! I had quite a funny experience with
| preacher-poet friend who sent me
poem. I took the trouble to return it
| with the euphemsm that it was unavail-
able l did not have the wish to make
an enemy of telling him I thought it
was punk" He waited his time and got
his revenge He offered it to brother
editor in another state who printed it
conspicuously on the front page of his
weekly. He then sent me copy with
the remark that as soon as it reached an
editor who was judge of poetry it was
given a place of honor.
! l am fond of poetry and have filled
| my mind with the best poems of the
classic poets, and have also read many
Of them which find their way into the
magazines and papers of the day. but for
the tlife of me 1 cannot understand the
it's just like my inability to read music
or tell why like certain operas and dis
like others. There are poems which
appeal to me just as do certain airs
| Besides the large number OF poems in
cluded in the Anthology there are over
so short reviews of volumes of poetry
appearing in the previous twelvN months,
together with list of publications deal
| ing with poets and poetry, and also ar
ticles and reviews of poets and poetry
published during 1915. l had no idea that
poetry was SO flourishing, or that so
much time and space was given to it by
the reading public
! In looking over the table of poems
found all kinds of subjects treated. Here
are some of the titles: From Car Win
dow" Gave Talk" For the Dedication
OF Toy Theatre" THE Courtyard Pig
cons" ITO Gentleman Reformer."
Men Have Wings at Last" The Fruit
Shop" ION the Porch" The Wind in
the Corn" sun Drowned With Toll"
Hymn to the Dairy Maids of Beacon
street" 1.-THE Death of the Hired Man."
1.-The Bird and the Tree" These are
some of the familiar topics; of course,
There are the usual classic and fancicul
ones.
l cited the above selections merely to
get in this paragraph from the intro