The St. Nicholas League
“A Heading for February.” By Frank P. O’Brien, age 16. (Gold Badge.)
THE PLEASURES OF MEMORY.
By Sibyl Kent Stone (age 15.)
(Gold Badge)
Forget the cold breath on the window-pane,
Forget the earth is muffled deep in snow,
Forget—and lo! ‘t is summer-time again.
Of rolling, murm’ring waters tipped with white,
The lovely sunset’s dying, fading hue,
And then the softened dark of summer night.
The firelight fades to glowing ashes red;
Without, the snow is driving tuck and fast;
The clock strikes nine, and lo! ’t is time for bed.
An “Episode from French History” has been a popular subject, and so many interesting anecdotes and incidents have been received that we have been obliged to leave out more good contributions than we have had room to publish, For one thing, we have been compelled to omit almost everything about the three favorite heroines in French history: Joan of Arc, Marie Antoinette, and Charlotte Corday. More than half of the contributions received told the brave, sad stories of these three famous women—one a peasant girl, one a queen, the third a patrician who was yet willing to die in the cause of Liberty for all. We do not print their stories because they are already familiar to those who have studied French history, and are a part of every school curriculum. Joan, who found her way from the peasant hut at Domremy to Orléans and Rheims, to crown a king who let her perish at the stake; Antoinette of Austria, fair, frivolous, and lovable in her youth, wise and sweet in womanhood, dying at last calmly and nobly, as a queen should die; Charlotte of Normandy, who strengthened her arm to slay a monster and paid for bis wretched life with her own—their well-known stories we have put by for incidents and episodes less widely known, or perhaps for some picturesque retelling of a familiar scene. For, as we have often said before, we must select for the reader as well as for the writer, and this is what every magazine editor does, To teach this point of view in the League is only preparing its members for the methods of these grown-up periodicals which some day will be considering, and, we hope, accepting a great many of our contributions.
It seems curious that any one who can write a poem good enough to take a prize should try to rhyme “meet” with “keep,” especially after we haye so often inveighed against the effort which some of our young friends make to unite varying consonant sounds. No poet has been allowed to do so to any extent since Chaucer, and Chaucer’s license would be revoked if he were to take any such liberties in this day of trained cars and eyes. “Skate” does not rhyme with “flake,” “sun” does net rhyme with “come,” nor do any two words having different consonant sounds, It should not be necessary for the editor to tell the contributors this—their ears ought to tell it to them; and while our young poets may, in their school verses, compromise with rhymes and mix their meters, if they choose, prize-winning in the League does not lie in that direction, “Sun” rhymes with “fun” and “gun” and “run” and “done.” “Skate” rhymes with “date” and “plate” and “obviate’’; “meet” with “fleet,” “complete,” and “hard to beat? Also, do net try to rhyme “dawn” with “morn.” There are persons, we regret to say, who forget that the letter r has any right to be heart, and pronounce “morn” as if it were spelled “mawn,” but no such persons have places on the staff of St. Nicholas, and the letter r in the League office is accorded a full and fair hearing.
PRIZE WINNERS, COMPETITION No. 62.
In making the awards, contributors’ ages are considered.
Verse. Gold badge, Sibyl Kent Stone (age 15}, 90 Mt. Vernon St., Boston, Mass,
Silver badges, Ethel Dickson (age 15), St. Gabriel’s School, peekskill N. Y., and Katherine Rutan Newmann (age 11), St. Gabriel’s School, Peekskill, N. Y.
Prose. Gold badges, Martin Janowitz (age 15), 387 Jefferson St., Buffalo, N. Y., and Francis Marion Miller (age 12), Oak Grove Ave., Hasbrouck Heights.
Silver badges, Persis Parker (age 14), Julesburg,368
