, I have been struck with
several facts. I will give them for what they are worth, leaving their
explanation to others. First, there seems to be a general fondness for
the sonnet, and a very general lack of success in writing it. Second,
the French forms of light verse are exceedingly popular--particularly
the rondeau, ballade, and triolet. These, more easily lending themselves
to gay moods than does the sonnet, are written with much greater
success. Triolets are perhaps least often, rondeaus most often,
successful. Third, purely sentimental verse is little written in women's
colleges, its place being taken by poetry of nature or of reflection.
Oddly enough, when it _is_ attempted, the writer usually fancies herself
the lover, and describes feminine, not masculine, beauty. College girls
show possibly more maturity of reflective power than do their brothers,
but they are notably weaker in the sense of humor. Fourth, amongst so
much merely graceful verse, there are not wanting touches here and there
of genuine poetry. I shall be disappointed if the reader does not
discover many such in this little book.
While I have confined myself, for the most part, to verse printed in the
college publications of the past five years, I have overstepped this
limit in a few instances. None of the poems in the present book,
however, were included in the first series published in 1892.
Thanks are due Messrs. Andrus & Church, of Ithaca, N.Y., for their
generous loan of bound files of the _Cornell Era_, to the assistant
librarian of Harvard University for numerous courtesies, and to the
editors of many college papers, without whose kind cooperation the
second series of "Cap and Gown" would have been impossible.
F.L.K.
COLLEGE PUBLICATIONS REPRESENTED.
AMHERST COLLEGE _Amherst Literary Monthly, The_.
BALTIMORE, WOMAN'S COLLEGE OF _Kalends, The_.
BOWDOIN COLLEGE _Bowdoin Orient, The._
_Bowdoin Quill, The_.
BROWN UNIVERSITY _Brown Magazine, The_.
_Brunonian, The_.
BRYN MAWR COLLEGE _Bryn Mawr Lantern, The_.
CALIFORNIA UNIVERSITY _University of California Magazine._
CHICAGO UNIVERSITY _University of Chicago Weekly, The_.
COLGATE UNIVERSITY _Madisonensis_.
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY _Columbia Literary Monthly, The._
_Columbia Spect
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