Uneven Number of Monthly

Unevenness characterizes the last number of the Harvard Monthly. No article in it is without merit, but there is hardly one which is not marred by at least a little more crudity than is reasonably excusable.

The number begins with "A Student's Recollections of Thomas Wentworth Higginson," by Mr. E. Wentworth Huckel, more sympathetic and hero-workshiping than inspired. Next is a sonnet by Mr. E. E. Cummings, about as cryptic as undergraduate sonnets are apt to be, and that is saying a good deal. After this comes a fairly amusing and lively story, "Bluff," by "B." Mr. R. S. Mitchell's poem, which follows, "From the Arabian Nights," is the best verse in the number, a pleasing experiment with the difficult Spenserian stanza, though, as we say in "Composition," courses, conspicuous more for "elegance than force." "When the Suspenders Came Off," a seasonal sketch, by Mr. Ben Sion Trynin, is the largest piece of fiction in this Monthly. It has the makings of a good story, but it is rather rough in workmanship and not always of crystal clearness. The bit of verse following, "From a Warm Room," one is uncertain whether to take seriously or humorously. After this come the "Glimpses," of Paris and of Boston respectively. The former--"Paris: Under a Bridge"--is very good description, except that the writer, with that serene disregard of natural fact which appears in so much undergraduate production, seems to make gorse and heather one and the same and both purple. (The reviewer at least had supposed them different and gorse yellow). In the second sketch--"Boston: Mount Vernon Street"--not only is there similar disregard of fact--for from Chestnut street the writer sees streets which ordinarily are visible only from Myrtle street--but there is also the conclusion: "Sang as I went along; shouted."

"It must be a lovely street to live on. For Louisburg square is part of London, three thousand miles away."

Is either this expression or this reasoning worthy of the Monthly?

There remain to be mentioned the editorials, which are sound in substance and easy enough in style, though a little perfunctory; Mr. Thacher Nelson's verse, "After Rain," which has some good lines but some inapt words (does a road sough, for instance?); and a thoughtful, well-written article by Mr. Earle Stafford, "Humanity and Sanity," on General von Bernhard's now famous book.

Even Mr. Stafford writes "differ with" when he means "differ from." The editors of the Monthly, who always aim it produce articles of significant substanceshould not forget the importance of good style.