The Little Review, March 1914 (Vol. 1, No. 1)Various
General
The Little Review, March 1914 (Vol. 1, No. 1)
Various
Literature, Modern -- 20th century -- Periodicals
The craze for colored wigs is, of course, an outgrowth of futurism. Why
should a man be any color except that which his will dictates? This has
long (a few months) been the cry of the painter, and the smart set has
echoed: Why should he? Women in green and blue wigs have been seen in
New York already. But, of course, it would be senseless to stop there;
if one has an orange toupé he should surely have a mauve face. Yellow
complexions are worn with indigo hair. We have long been accustomed to
blue powdered noses on Fifth Avenue, and the setting of diamonds in the
teeth is an old story. The only trouble with this epoch-making idea is
that it is old. Phoenician women did it! And wasn't it Edward Lear who
wrote of _The Jumblies_:
"Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,
And they went to sea in a sieve"?
Of course, if one doesn't believe in this new development of art, but is
naturalistic, he should be brave enough to chase his idea to its lair
and act upon it, like Lady Constance Stewart Richardson, who is now
tripping about the homes of the rich in New York with nothing at all
on--or worse than nothing.
Forgive my preposterosities! But the ridiculous seriousness with which
everything unfamiliar is taken by a sensation-sated _haute monde_ is
such a brilliant target for satire. I think with immense relief of a
wonderful bit of sky, and a long stretch of beach, and of all things
tangible and--yes, though it may be bourgeois--_healthy_.
To a Lost Friend
EUNICE TIETJENS
Across the tide of years you come to me,
You whom I knew so long ago.
A poignant letter kept half carelessly,
A faded likeness, dull and gray to see....
And now I know.
. . . . . .
Strange that I knew not then,--that when you stood
In warm, sweet flesh beneath my hand,
Your soul tumultuous as a spring-time flood
And life's new wonder pulsing in your blood,
I could not understand.
I could not see your soul like thin red fire
Flash downward to my gaze,
Nor guess the strange, half-understood desire,
The tumult and the question and the ire
Of those far days.
I saw your soul stretch longing arms to love
In adolescent shyness bound,
And passionately storm the gods above.
Yet, since my own young heart knew naught thereof,
You never found.
It is too late now. You have dropped away
In formless silence from my ken,
And youth's high hopes turn backward to decay.
Yet, oh, my heart were very fain to-day
To love you then!
Culture has one great passion--the passion for sweetness and
light. It has one even yet greater!--the passion for making them
_prevail_.--Matthew Arnold in _Culture and Anarchy_.
The Irish Players: An Impression
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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