The Yale Literary Magazine

You see,

But I never took no notice to 'er. Puffs 'em up so. 'er brother was a fightin' man, and she learned it natural like, playin' with 'im. She dunno' what she knows in that line, 'cept when she's mad; and then it all comes out. You've got to git 'er mad fust, though. Quiet as a child at other times."

This Boadicea of the streets is a fine creation. Mr. Whiteing has got hold of a type new to literature and he develops it with a warmth of sympathy that suggests real power. This in itself is sufficient to redeem any faults of construction and balance the book may display.

J. W. B.

EDITOR'S TABLE.

With the permission of the author, Miss Martha Hale Shackford, Wellesley '96, we print the succeeding sonnets as recipients of the Cook Prize for '98. Since the contest is now thrown open to a possibly larger field, a hint as to the necessary quality may not be a mistake.

COLUMBA.

Impulsive, stormy, passionate as the sea
Whose beat and tumult swept Iona's shore,
Columba sang to Arran o'er and o'er :
"My sun, my heart is in the west with thee!"
From bitterness of longing never free,
His life the glory of a triumph wore.
Against the sins and wrongs of men he bore
Unflinching fight,—a man who would not flee.

The father of that fiery northern school,
Unmatched for zeal and magic influence,
His ardor, never quiet, never cool,

Loved evening's gold and crimson, with a sense
Of God's eternal, everlasting rule

Maintained by love and man's long reverence.

II.

BEDE.

A fair-haired boy,-he loved the silent place
Where gray, cold walls were warders of that song
Whose even Latin cadence lingered long

Within his heart. When prayer and fast gave space,
His eager, steady fingers learned to trace

The letters done in blue and gold along

The vellum pages, while the dark-robed throng
Passed by, unseen, before his glowing face.

A silver-haired and beautiful old man,
With vehement desire he hungered still
To master some abstruse old Latin page.

Still seeking fast, our first historian,
He labored on with changeless heart and will
The foremost scholar of his learned age.

III.

AIDAN.

To royal Oswald's war-encompassed land
Went Aidan, with the peace of God within
His heart, rebuking avarice and sin,
And daring in his fervor to withstand
Ambitious princes' pride, and to demand

Unswerving rectitude where crime had been.
The cruel gleam of knives, the smoke and din
Of heathendom ceased at his stern command.

When death assailed him with a sudden right,
His comrades quickly pitched a sheltering tent
Beside the church he loved; and as he died
He grasped the buttress with defiant might,
Exulting in his faith, which no event

Could weaken, and no changing aims divide.,

IV.

CUTHBERT.

Where haunting seagulls scream, and eagles fly
'Round island shores lashed by the ocean's swell,
Saint Cuthbert hollowed out his rocky cell
With grim, blank walls, and roof of stars and sky.
The seamews came with friendly, eager cry

To brush his shoulder. Every stone and shell
Lay in his hand; and from his lips there fell
Sweet words of cheer to sailors passing by.

His holy death was flashed from isle to isle
By beacon lights over the far blue sea;

Even so his spirit sent its healing strength,

As legends tell, to stricken people while

They kissed his relics. So his sanctity

Transcended death and time's consuming length.

BENEDICT BISCOP.

Beside the mouth of smoothly flowing Wear
Rose Benedict's long-dreamed-of masterpiece.
His foreign travels labored to increase
The growing beauty of his church, whose fair
Glass windows sheltered ornaments of rare
Strange form and color. Through his diocese
He sent God's messengers in love and peace.
With Latin music for their daily prayer.

Some mystic sense of art's constraining power
Sufficed to guide his consecrated mind
To fairer, more imaginative ways
Of praising God under that Roman tower.
Men felt a sweeter faith, an undefined

New inspiration ruling work and praise.