3

THE COLLEGE NEWS

Page Three









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BOOK REVIEW





At Midnight on the 31st of Marth

By Josephine Young Case
$2.00

According to the notice on the fly-
leaf, Walter D. Edmonds’ first reac-
tion to At Midnight on the 31st of
March was, “A wonderful idea! I
wish I had thought of it myself.”
This is-an opinion that will probably
be echoed by any Bryn Mawrter who
has read the poem. Her first feeling is
likely ‘to be one of pride that a grad-
uate of the college, and its young-
est Director, should: have conceived
so splendidly original and suggestive
a theme. But her second thought is
more than likely to be an irritated
conviction that .even she. hé€rself
could have dled it better, if she
had only happened to think of it first.

The book is the chronicle of a sin-
gle year in the. tiny New. England
village of Saugersville. It begins at
midnight on the 31st of March, when
the electric power suddenly and inex-
plicably fails, and the people get up

in the morning to find the traffic gone, |

the roads gone, the neighboring cities
gone and unbroken wilderness strech-
ing out on every side of the village.
Their differing reactions to the crisis
and their way of meeting it form the
body of the poem,

It was impossible, in so short and
generalized a work, that these people
should be anything but types. Ex-
cept for the warped and malignant
figure of old Abe Givets, who is more
carefully studied than the rest, they
might all be labelled New England
Characters: the gentle minister, -the
village gossip, the discontented young
man who wanted to go to the city,
the trodden wife of the village bully.
They are as simply and unsubtly pre-
sented as qualities in a medieval mor-
ality play, which is, by the way,
the type of work that At Midnight on
the 31st of March most ‘closely re-
sembles.

Like the medieval writers, Mrs.
Case sometimes slightly overstresses

—

The Directors—

The first meeting of the Board
of Directors of the College for
this year was held at the ye
ery on Thursday, October 20,
five o’clock; the meeting “was
followed by’ dinner at the Dean-
ery. -







the obvious moral of her poem: that
people were much better,and™ happier
in the primitive colonial days, without
the distractions of radios, tourists,
crooners and longings for the city
lights. But also, like the medieval
writers, she brings a simplicity and
directness to her teaching that grace
and disarm it. Nothing so extenuat-
ing can be said about the form Mrs.
Case has chosen for her work.

Blank verse was not an altogether
happy choice, even for the more ex-
alted portions of the book; for the
more. trivial sections, it was simply
disastrous. It transformed the simple
act of turning on the lights into this,

“ , , restless hands reached,: for
the switch; the bulb
As quick and brilliant as a light-
ning flash
Answered obedient and set forth
the scene,”
or discovering that the power was
dead into this,
“No lights answered to the switch
his careless hand
Turned with a habit that required
no thought.
But thought flashed on when no
lights came. to life.
‘He tried again.”

‘

In other parts of the poem, Mrs.
Case proves, and proves generously,
that she can write acceptable and
even excellent blank verse. But these
splendid moments are always either
slumping. back into pompous triviali-
ties or breaking on the harsh New
England dialect, as they do in the
description of Abe Givet’s wife:

“Her eyes were big as rabbits’ and
as soft.







She looked a bigger child among
her own,

As tender,
ORG 2.3

And. few thought twice of her

except to say,

‘She has no easy life that girl I
bet.’ ”

pitiful, and ignor-

of thing might have been excusable

resources of ' prose-insertion,

‘uate
avoid it.

can classic.

to come. i. Me

In the eighteenth century, this sort

of thing. might have -been excusable;
but in the twentieth, “with: all the
free
verse, and meter-variation at Mrs.
Case’s command, it is hard to forgive
the way the form drags down the
originality of the idea, or escape the
conclusion that almost any undergrad-
should have known how to

But through -all these defects of
emphasis and style the theme of. the
book rises still strangely arresting and
fascinating.. These formal faults pre-
vent the poem from being pwhat it
might so easily have been: an Ameri-
They cannot prevent it
from being a deeply suggestive work
and a prophecy, perhaps, of classics|,paps a little better than usual;





The Church of the
’ Redeemer
Bryn Mawr, Pa.
Students of the college are
cordially invited to the services.
‘Sunday—8 a.m. and 11 a. m.
Thursdays and Saints Days—
10 8.
Ernest C. Earp, rector.
Ernest Willoughby, organist
and choirmaster.



me





Freshman Class Receives
Blue Lanterns in Cloisters



Continued from Page One

“tion, was first sung on Lantern Night
by the class of 1924.

This year’s Lantern Night had
nothing particularly to distinguish it
from performances of the last few
years, except that a rapid exit of the
unusually large ‘freshman class was
facilitated by the use of three separate
doorways instead of the customary
one. The Freshmen’s song was per-
while
the sophomores sang their longer and
hence more difficult hymn in less per-



“The Alumnae Came

Down—”

Complete statistics on the
number of alumnae attending
the various events of alumnae
week-end are not ‘available, but
215 separate alumnae were at
the college for at least one meal.
These 215 represented 50 of
the 53 graduated classes. .As
far as Mrs.. Bassett could as-
certain, the unrepresented
classes were 1890, 1916 and
1933.



fect unison. Our only suggestion for
improvement is that the withdrawal of
the sophomores to their dark corner of
the -cloisters might be accomplished
rather more quietly—even at the price
of a little loss of time; the present
heavy-footed, noisy rush
breaks the quiet, spell of the rest of the
ceremony. 5

completely’

Varsity Hockey Team
_Ties’ Merion Club, 3-3



Bryn Mawr Leads Opponents Until
Fast Second Half |



On Saturday, October 22, the Bryn
Mawr Varsity. Hockey Team tied the
‘Merion Cricket Club Team, 3-3.

Bryn Mawr kept control in the first
half, scoring three goals. The for-
ward: line played good fast “hockey
andthe defense was also very efficient

1th H. Resor, ’42, breaking up many -

plays.

In‘the second half Merion made all
three of her points. The outstand-
ing player was B. Strobhar who scored
in spite of the valiant defense of N..
Beck, ’40, the Bryn Mawr goal.

The teams were:
BRYN MAWR

MERION
Smith Ho. 6. rR es : Kirk>:
Strobhar ...... “ig Weadock
OOOO kis iee OG cei Stokes
MBIDUR ales he, ee eee Lee
MU ko ev oe Lee ee ara Howard ~
Harding :...... Poh Waples
ee ss Os sia Ligon
MOUS 6 ceca os eee Marshall
EORD. cigs Bo ei Resor
BREE 54s Ves RT uc ee Norris
BING! 65. Cia ves Qe. eee Beck

Umpires: Krumbhar, Turman.

Goals: Merion—Strobhar, 2, Wil-
bur,“ 1. Bryn Mawr—Weadock, 1;
Stokes, 1; Lee, 1



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