Evening star., 1939-01-15

SOnneCS as freely as mOulClng
canary drops feathers. It's a poor
day when this Harvard professor
fails to compose dozen of these
short poems, and not rare day
when he composes So Now, he
gathers the best of them together
and publishes None Thousand
photographed SonnetS." Since
an assemb1y-line muse first smote
him. MI. Moore of Cambridge has
produced more than $4,000 poems.
He composes couplets as he walks.
With his every inhalation a line of
iambic pentameter is born; every
eXhalation brings the genesis of its
mate. The Moorish feat is remark
able; but the question arises, is it
sonnet? The author puts together
seven heroic couplets and terms it
a sonnet. He is free and easy with
the most narrow and demanding of
verse forms. Few will deny him
the estate of poet; but Coleridge
and Shelley, poets both, and great
ones, failed as sonneteers.
Mr. Moore has no regard for the
traditional rhyme scheme of the
sonnet. He splits his Sonnets into
stanzas with variable numbers of
verses. He sometimes permits him.
self to run beyond the IA lines which
have been the bounds of sonnetS
since before the days of Shake
speare, the English languages mas
ter sonneteer. The sonnet is lyric
portraying intense feeling by intense
language and has no relation to
poetry such as this:
'When she told me she was eating
her heart out,
"And, in that tone of voice, knew
THAT was probably the last thing
true
"About her -"
The book can be enjoyed as an
oddity, and, occasionally, for its
poetry But one might as well con-
tend that a locomotive is an air.
plane as insist that the 1000 poems
in M" are 1000 sonnets. B. B.
RADIO WRITING. BY Max Wylie.
New York: Farrar 81 Rinehart.
Any person interested in writing
for the radio as a career will find
plenty of meat in these 543 nouriSh-
ing pages.
Mr.. Wylie, who is director of
script and continuity of the Colum-
bia Broadcasting System, and has
conducted courses in radio writing
at New York University, furnishes
in what is virtually text book
lively discussion of the youngest of
the creative arts. In it are examples
of stage plays that have passed
through the discipline of the studio
and been broadcast, as well as a
chamber of horrors, replete with
dialogue, which will never reach the
ether. And MI Wylie explains why.
Leaving no angle of radio writ
ing untouched, Mr.. Wylie discusses
misconceptions about radio writing,
pacing, sound effects, the problem
of transition shifting the action
from one scene to the other in
either time or location or BOTH, the
factors of direction, purpose and
Ivy WlllIl1 lllC
quality OF good workmanship; char
acteristic blunders of the beginner,
the importance of simplicity, the
dangers of loss of chara acteriZation,
the application of reading knowl-
edge, the fundamental problems of
adaptation with examples from the
Bible illustrating the expansion and
t,,.ohloy,ocA
problems of adaptation, basic ele-
ments and action in script written
for children, educational programs
for children, commercial radio
script, fantasy and continuities for
popular music, serious music, talks,
sports and news.
Mr.. Wylie makes no pretense that
there is any substitute for good
writing in the radio business; that
you can read his book and become
a successful author of broadcasts.
Script writing is play writing and
continuity writing is prose writing,
he says, and those who have tried
to write for other media and failed
will also fail in radio. v. K. c.
HOW TO MEASURE YOUR POW
ERS AND INCREASE YOUR
INCOME. BY Harry H. Balkin.
New York: Halcyon House.
For those millions who wish they
could tag men and women at
glance, Harry H. Balkin is the man
to turn to. He can tell you how to
sort the stupid from the wise, the
quick from the slow, the practical
from the impractical, the honest
from the dishonest. It's all done by
knowing the significance of physical
characteristics.
Whether his lessons in character
reading are effective is some
thing else again, to be demon
strated only by trial. But his book,
which is no relation to Dale Car
negie's study of the irresistible per-
sonality, makes fascinating prom
ise of authority to its readers For
a while. at least. they will feel that
"just by observation as Mr.. Balkin
says, they can size up every type of
individual you'll ever meet"
Mr.. Balkin knows the scientific
differences between blondes and
brunettes. He bases his system of
character analysis (Which has made
him fat living) on what he calls
the nine observable physical va
rabies: Color Chair, skin, eyes
and beard). 2-Form forehead, eyes,
nose, mouth and Chin. 3-Struc-
ture (mental or nervous system, mo-
tive or muscular and bony struc-
ture, vital or alimentary system)
4TeXture chair, skin, features)
5eConsistency and flexibility (hesh
and bones). 6-Proportion (face,
head and body. 7-Size Qarge or
small body 8-EXpression walk,
voice, gestures, clothing, handshake,
handwriting, appearance, etc.. g.
Physical condition Estate of health)
How long is your upper lip? If
It's short, you eat up flattery with