And while we are considering poems "in lighter vein," let us not forget the three famous initials signed to a column in the Chicago _Tribune_, Don Marquis of the _Evening Sun_, who can be either grave or gay but cannot be ungraceful, and the universally beloved Captain Franklin P. Adams, whose _Conning Tower_ increased the circulation of the New York _Tribune_ and the blood of its readers. Brightest and best of the sons of the Colyumnists, his classic Muse made the _Evening Mail_ an evening blessing, sending the suburbanites home to their wives "always in good humour"; then, like Jupiter and Venus, he charged from evening star to morning star, and gave many thousands a new zest for the day's work. Skilful indeed was his appropriation of the methods of Tom Sawyer; as Tom got his fence whitewashed by arousing an eager competition among the boys to do his work for him, each toiler firmly persuaded that he was the recipient rather than the bestower of a favour, so F. P. A. incited hundreds of well-paid literary artists to compete with one another for the privilege of writing his column without money and without price. His two books of verse, _By and Large_ and _Weights and Measures_, have fairly earned a place in contemporary American literature; and the influence of his column toward precision and dignity in the use of the English language has made him one of the best teachers of English composition in the country. CHAPTER X SARA TEASDALE, ALAN SEEGER, AND OTHERS Sara Teasdale--her poems of love--her youth--her finished art--Fannie Stearns Davis--her thoughtful verse--Theodosia Garrison--her war poem--war poetry of Mary Carolyn Davies--Harriet Monroe--her services--her original work--Alice Corbin--her philosophy--Sarah Cleghorn--poet of the country village--Jessie B. Rittenhouse--critic and poet--Margaret Widdemer--poet of the factories--Carl Sandburg--poet of Chicago--his career--his defects--J. C. Underwood--poet of city noises--T. S. Eliot--J. G. Neihardt--love poems--C. W. Stork--_Contemporary Verse_--M. L. Fisher--_The Sonnet_--S. Middleton--J. P. Bishop--W. A. Bradley--nature poems--W. Griffith--_City Pastorals_--John Erskine--W. E. Leonard--W. T. Whitsett--Helen Hay Whitney--Corinne Roosevelt Robinson--M. Nicholson--his left hand--Witter Bynner--a country poet--H. Hagedorn--Percy Mackaye--his theories--his possibilities--J. G. Fletcher--monotony of free verse--Conrad Aiken--his gift of melody--W. A. Percy--the best American poem of 1917--Alan Seeger--an Elizabethan--an inspired poet.