Produced by Bryan Ness, David E. Brown and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) THE CIRCUS AND OTHER ESSAYS AND FUGITIVE PIECES JOYCE KILMER _Uniform with this Volume_ JOYCE KILMER: Poems, Essays and Letters _Edited with a Memoir by_ ROBERT CORTES HOLLIDAY VOLUME ONE: MEMOIR AND POEMS VOLUME TWO: PROSE WORKS THE CIRCUS AND OTHER ESSAYS AND FUGITIVE PIECES BY JOYCE KILMER EDITED WITH INTRODUCTION BY ROBERT CORTES HOLLIDAY NEW YORK GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY Copyright, 1921, By George H. Doran Company Copyright, 1916, by Laurence J. Gomme PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA TO ALINE KILMER ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Credit is gratefully accorded the _New York Times_, _America_, _Contemporary Verse_, and _Poetry: A Magazine of Verse_, for permission to reprint several of the pieces collected in this volume. For the privilege of reprinting poems quoted by Kilmer in his articles and lectures, acknowledgment is made to the following publishers: E. P. Dutton & Company, Dodd, Mead and Company, Charles Scribner's Sons, John Lane Company, The Macmillan Company, Methuen and Company, Boni and Liveright, and Burns and Oates. And the permission of George Sterling is greatly appreciated for the right to reproduce his three sonnets on Oblivion. The article on Thomas Hardy, prepared as the Introduction to the Modern Library Edition of "The Mayor of Casterbridge," is reproduced by special arrangement with Boni and Liveright. The publishers of "Warner's Library of the World's Best Literature" have courteously extended permission to reprint here the four essays, originally written for that work, which conclude this volume. R. C. H. _New York, 1921._ CONTENTS PAGE INTRODUCTION BY ROBERT CORTES HOLLIDAY 13 THE CIRCUS, AND OTHER ESSAYS THE CIRCUS 45 THE ABOLITION OF POETS 60 NOON-HOUR ADVENTURING 70 SIGNS AND SYMBOLS 83 THE GREAT NICKEL ADVENTURE 88 THE URBAN CHANTICLEER 96 DAILY TRAVELING 105 INCONGRUOUS NEW YORK 110 IN MEMORIAM: JOHN BUNNY 116 THE DAY AFTER CHRISTMAS 125 FUGITIVE PIECES THE ASHMAN 137 THE BEAR THAT WALKS LIKE A MAN 146 ABSINTHE AT THE CHESHIRE CHEESE 153