The longest and most notable prose piece in the July number of the Monthly is "Leaf, Somebody's Son" by A. Calvert Smith. The author makes ingenious use of the small boy's point of view to relate a fragment of the Saga of Eric the Red. The difficult style is well sustained, and the story is remarkable for happily chosen details. The small space devoted to the inner plot will disappoint readers who admire Kipling's "Puck of Puck Hill" series.
In "The Death of Penelope" Mr. Butler-Thwing presents an admirably conceived dramatic possibility for an afterword to the Odyssey. The work faithfully reproduces the spirit of Homer, and the verse compares favorably with Bryant's translation. The poem displays high imagination: and is by long odds the best verse the Monthly has published this year.
"Tormo the Trout" by Mr. Weston is a daintily worded and slightly mystie sketch of the sort that is pleasant to read but which leaves no particular impression on the reader's mind. Mr. McCormick's vivid study based on a shipwreck makes a definite impression. So little emphasis is laid on the first phase of the story, however, that the plot does not receive the full benefit of the sharp contrast as the character develops.
"A Summer Day." by Mr. Garland, lacks distinction because of its ordinary diction and irregularities in meter. Even the timeliness of the poem does not rescue it from mediocrity. Mr. Edwin Arlington Robinson, a former contributor to the Monthly, has recently treated the same thought from an entirely different angle in his poem "The Field of Glory". Of the shorter verse, Mr. Petersen's "The Sun and the Rain" shows promise, and Mr. Hillyer's sonnet is worthy of notice.
The editorial page is forceful, pointed, epigrammatic; a happy change from the too well balanced periods we are apt to expect from the Monthly board. This seasonable sort of editorial is to be encouraged. Directed toward matters affecting the college, it might become a power in influencing public opinion.
The new form of the Monthly is a pleasant surprise. The cover is much improved both in color and design. The narrower page and the heavier titles are more pleasing to the eye. I trust the editors will make this their permanent form.
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