NEVER TO FORGET,
by Eugene WhiteFuller '11. Ralph Fletcher Seymour. 1948.pp. ii 104, $2.00
The twentieth century, for the most part, has tended to drop older verse forms in favor of less rigid modes of expression, but NEVER TO FORGET is an attempt to express the author's opinions on a great number of subjects, mostly literary, in that highly formalized type of verse known as the sonnet.
If the book is a reflection of Mr. Fuller's reading, it is safe to say that he has ranged far and appreciated copiously. Socrates and Homer jostle for pride of place with Goethe, Dumas pere, and William Cullen Bryant. Mark Twain, Conan Doyle, and that great nineteenth century biographer, U. S. Grant, also find themselves in the procession. A reviewer's chief difficulty, it would seem, is here begins since all of the portraits do not seem to be equally successful.
As an example, Athenian Youth Speaks ofSocrates is a not unhappy union of the Browningesque dramatic monologue and the form of sonnet which Shakespeare was supposed to have invented. The youth and author are agreed that Socrates was a great man. Another character from ancient history, the Roman Julius Caesar, does not fare so well. He seems to have been troubled, in some mysterious way, by "scraps of ancient song," and some sort of moral is implied when we reach the couplet: Surely the gods of War will not allow Such wicked songs to gnaw the conquerors now.
The riming of "approve" with "Sainte-Beuve" and "Pegasus" with "masses," is worthy 0f Don Juan. Permission to reprint the verses was obtained from the Chicago Tribune.
