Fame, the skyscraper, hath a thousand floors;
And some toil slowly upward, stair by stair,
And stagger and halt and faint upon the way;
Others, more fortunate, achieve the top
At one swift elevation, by the lift.
Mr. Geek, whatever his method of progression may have been, has
certainly "achieved the top"--if indeed he has not gone over it.
* * * * *
In _Throbs_, Miss Gramercy Gingham-Potts reveals a depth of feeling
and delicacy of expression that should secure her the right of entry
to every art-calendar and birthday-book. Her Muse is, perhaps, a
trifle anaemic, but to many none the less interesting on that account;
its very fragility, in fact, constitutes its chief appeal. She has an
engaging gift of definition that, combined with a keen appreciation
of the obvious, makes her verses particularly susceptible to quotation.
For instance:--
The maiden asked, "What is a kiss?"
The poet wrote:
"Kisses are stamps that frank with bliss
Love's contract-note."
While for effectively studied simplicity it would be difficult to
match the lyrical gem to which Miss Gingham-Potts has given the
arresting title, "Farewell":--
The birds sing sweet in Summer;
The daisies hear their song;
But Winter's come, and they are dumb
So long.
I told my love in Summer,
So pure and brave and strong;
But frosts came on; my love is gone;
So long!
* * * * *
A new volume by the author of _Swings and Roundabouts_ is something
of an event; and in _Bottles and Jugs_ Mr. Ughtred Biggs makes another
fascinating raid on the garbage-bins of London's underworld. Mr. Biggs
is a stark realist, and his unminced meat may prove too strong for
some stomachs; but those who can digest the fare he offers will
find it wonderfully sustaining. Here is no condiment of verbiage, no
dressing of the picturesque. Life is served up high, and almost raw.
By way of illustration we cannot do better than quote from the opening
poem, "Bill's Wife," in which the calculated roughness of the rhythm
is redolent of the pervading atmosphere:--
At the corner of the street
Stands the Blue-faced Pig;
Outside a barrel-organ is playing
And the people are dancing a jig.
A woman waits there grimly;
Her eyes are set and her lips drawn thin;
For Bill, her man, is in the public,
Soaking his soul in gin.
Students of sociology might do worse than devote careful attention to
these gaunt chronicles of Slumland.
* * * * *
The following stanzas, taken from a poem entitled "Reconstruction,"
are a favourable example of Mr. Thor Pinmoney's somewhat unequal
genius:--
By strife we live, but boredom slays;
My mind from out this office strays
And takes me back to the spacious days
When I counted socks in Ordnance.
I hate my pen; I hate my stool;
What am I but a nerveless tool?
But we did not work by rote or rule
When I counted socks in Ordnance....
There are times even now when it really seems
I'm back in a suburb of shell-shocked Rheims;
But the office echoes my waking screams
When I find it was only in my dreams
I was counting socks in Ordnance.
Unfortunately, all Mr. Pinmoney's efforts do not come up to this
standard, and we should be almost inclined to wonder whether the
writer has not after all mistaken his vocation, were it not for the
really brilliant piece of work which brings the volume (_Pegasus Comes
Home_) to a close. We make no apology for reproducing this masterpiece
in full:--
Man comes
And goes.
What then?
Who knows?
Here we have the whole philosophy of life and the life hereafter
summed up. If he never writes another line Mr. Pinmoney is by this
assured of a permanent place in the anthology of post-bellum poetry.
* * * * *
"Replying to the toast of his health, Mr. Lloyd George said it
was a great boon that a large industrial community should have
been founded amongst these lovely surroundings, a boon not
only for the workers, but also for their little children, who
would have the advantage of being reared in georgeous mountain
air."--_Daily Paper._
Lloyd-Georgeous, in fact.
* * * * *
[Illustration: MANNERS AND MODES.
HORRIBLE NIGHTMARE OF A LADY WHO DREAMS THAT SHE HAS GONE TO A BALL IN
HER NIGHT-GOWN AND FOUND HERSELF SHOCKINGLY OVERDRESSED.]
* * * * *