[Illustration: GRAMMAR MUCH WAS BEING THAT MUCH WAS SEEMING SOMEHOW MORE] THE CUBIES’ ABC VERSED BY MARY MILLS LYALL PICTURED BY EARL HARVEY LYALL G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS NEW YORK AND LONDON 1913 COPYRIGHT BY G. P. Putnam’s Sons The Knickerbocker Press, New York [Illustration: THE CUBIES’ ABC DEDICATED by THE CUBIES to The ASSOCIATION of AMERICAN PAINTERS and SCULPTORS <TO WHICH THEY OWE THEIR INCUBATION>] THE CUBIES’ A is for Art in the Cubies’ domain-- (Not the Art of the Ancients, brand-new are the Cubies.) Archipenko’s their guide, Anatomics their bane; They’re the joy of the mad, the despair of the sane, (With their emerald hair and their eyes red as rubies.) --A is for Art in the Cubies’ domain. [Illustration: A] B is for Beauty as Brancusi views it. (The Cubies all vow he and Braque take the Bun.) First you seize all that’s plain to the eye, then you lose it; Next you search for the Soul and proceed to abuse it. (They tell me it’s easy and no end of fun.) --B is for Beauty as Brancusi views it. [Illustration: B] C is for Color Cubistic ad libitum-- (Orange and blue, yellow, purple and green.) “Throw them all on your boards,” Cubies say, “then exhibit ’em!” There’ll be no colors left, if we don’t soon prohibit ’em! (Watch them at work and you’ll see what I mean.) --C is for Color Cubistic ad libitum. [Illustration: C] D is for Duchamp, the Deep-Dyed Deceiver, Who, drawing accordeons, labels them stairs, With a lady that must have been done in a fever,-- His model won’t see her, we trust, it would grieve her!-- (Should the stairway collapse, Cubie’s good at repairs.) --D is for Duchamp, the Deep-Dyed Deceiver. [Illustration: D] E’s for the Ego, intense and Exotic, Enjoyed by a Cubie, and quaintly Expressed In a lachrymose face with a gaze idiotic When seen on the canvas.--It’s really Quixotic To offer one’s soul to the Cubical test! --E’s for the Ego, intense and Exotic. [Illustration: E] F’s for the Future for which Cubies hanker;-- To Hals, Perugino and all that old crew They give up the Past without envy or rancor, While saying in tones than which naught could be franker: “Come, move on,--it’s our turn! They have finished with you.” --F’s for the Future for which Cubies hanker. [Illustration: F] G is for Gertrude Stein’s limpid lucidity, (Eloquent scribe of the Futurist soul.) Cubies devour each word with avidity: “_Alone_ words lack sense,” they affirm with placidity, “But _how_ wise we’ll be when we’ve swallowed the whole!” --G is for Gertrude Stein’s limpid lucidity. [Illustration: G]