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The editor of the Granite Monthly was gratified to receive, recently, a letter from Mr. Brookes More in which the generous donor of the $50 prize for the best poem published in the magazine during 1921 expressed his satisfaction with the results of the contest; said that his check was ready for the winner when announced to him by the judges; and expressed his willingness to continue the competition through 1922 under slightly changed conditions. It is needless to say that the Granite Monthly was pleased to accept Mr. More's suggestions and is glad to announce that he will award the same sum, $50, to the author of the best poem printed in the Granite Monthly during the year 1922. It is Mr. More's opinion, in which we coincide, that the best interests of the magazine and of the competition will be served by the adoption of the following two rules: No "free verse" will be eligible for the prize and those who desire to enter the contest must become subscribers for the Granite Monthly. It is hoped to be able to secure the services of the same board

of able judges as for 1921; and it is also hoped that their decision of the prize winner for last year may be announced in the February number.

Kind words for the Granite Month

ly in the state press are frequently seen and highly appreciated. Says the Rochester Courier editorially: "The literary merit of the magazine has never been on so high a plane, and, with its devotion to the interests of New Hampshire, it is a distinct asset to the state. Long may it continue to flourish and prosper under its present management.' The Claremont Eagle expresses pleasure pleasure that the continuance of the magazine for another year is assured and says: "Since

1878 it has been published and has never failed to live up to its mission as the 'New Hampshire State Magazine.' It should have a more generous support with its advancing years."

In accordance with the terms of a concurrent resolution adopted by the legislature of 1921 a committee composed of former State Senator Elmer E. Woodbury of Woodstock, Admiral Joseph B. Murdock of Hill and Major John G. Winant of Concord is engaged in securing by patriotic contributions. the necessary funds for placing in the New Hampshire capitol a worthy portrait in oils of Abraham Lincoln. An appeal will be made especially to the school children of the state during the second week of January and ten cents from each child would provide the sum thought necessary for the purpose. Contributions from other sources will be welcome, however.

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We shall begin in the February Granite Monthly the publication of "Homespun Yarns from the Red Barn Farm" partly fact and partly fiction, but in both respects giving as true a picture of rural New Hampshire 70 years ago as ever was printed, in our

opinion. The author, Mrs. Zillah George Dexter, of Franconia, draws upon the experiences of her own girlhood among the mountains for much of her manuscript and the results seem to us most interesting and enjoyable.

THE RESURRECTION OF THE SHIPS
By Reignold Kent Marvin

The tides of Rivermouth at God's behest

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Sweep clean New Hampshire's seaport day by day
And like good servants let no refuse stay,
But broom it far to sea, now east, now west.
So deep the thresh of tides, there is no rest
For sunken skeletons of ships and men
That ever grind in restless graves and then
Moan low for quiet beds of bones more blest.
But when at last the sea gives up its dead,-
A risen fleet well manned by ghostly crew,
The Spanish galleon and East Indian bark,
A phantom argosy by Nereus led,-
Will set worn sails the voyage to renew
To sunset harbors gleaming through the dark.

BOOKS OF NEW HAMPSHIRE INTEREST

Anthologies of Magazine Verse for 1920 and 1921. Edited by William Stanley Braithwaite. Boston: Small, Maynard and Co.

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These two years, William Stanley Braithwaite has more than maintained his position as the nation's most brilliant critic of poetry. He has "discovered" many American poets that otherwise might have still been singing in obscurity, he knows the field of modern poetical endeavor as no other man on this side of the water, his appraisals and reviews are just, his opinions well founded, his annual collections of magazine unequalled among all modern anthologies. And in making these selections from the year's output of periodical verse, Mr. Braithwaite renders double service, on the one hand bringing the poets to the public, on the other bringing the public to the poets. His selections will curry favor with no particular group of stylists, will please no one cult. The are, in their way, well nigh universal. Conceivably, no one will enjoy every bit of verse in the anthology, but agree or disagree, it must be admitted that rarely have there been made selections so excellently impartial. To collect the best in magazine verse year by year can be no small task, yet for his part, Mr. Braithwaite is quite equal to it. former anthologies are accurate mirrors of the poetic trend of those times, in fact the student of American poetical progress in the Twentieth Century can do no better than read them through. They will teach him much that the ordinary book cannot.

Even two such closely linked years as those of 1920 and 1921 offer interesting comparison. Some of the voices of last year are silent; others take their place. David Morton on the one hand and Edna St. Vincent Millay on the other, seem the two finest youthful lutanists of the day,

Hazel Hall continues her even way, Elinor Wylie springs from nowhere to add no small bit to the output of '21. Sara Teasdale, Katharine Lee Bates, John Gould Fletcher, Mrs. Richard Aldington, Robert Frost, John Hall Wheelock, Edgar Lee Masters, Amy Lowell, Scudder Middleton, Gamaliel Bradford, Edward O' Brien, Edwin Arlington Robinson, Clement Wood, Christopher Morley and Charles Wharton Stock appear and reappear through the two years. Amanda Benjamin Hall, Agnes Lee and Djuna Barnes, all promising figures of 1920, have nearly dropped from sight; to take their places come Miss Wylie, John V. A. Weaver, and Adul Tima, claiming first brilliance. this year, perhaps to be forgotten the

next.

Moreover, in the back of the Anthology lurk yet new poets of the future, not a few of them identified with the Granite Monthly prize contest, perhaps making their first public appeartherein. Many of them, it seems, will go far. Next year will undoubtedly see some few honored on Mr. Braithwaite's pages.

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Of the output of 1920, Mrs. Aldington's "The Islands," Miss A. B. Hall's "Dancer," Mr. Morton's "Garden Wall," Louis Ginsberg's "April," Miss Millay's lyrics and Sara Teasdale's, Conrad Aiken's "Asphalt," Margaret Adelaide Wilson's "Babylon," Mr. Masters' "A Republic," Miss Lee's "Old Lizette," Mr. Untermyer's "Auction," and Miss Barnes "Dead Favorite," seemed the best. The pattern of 1921 is entirely different; of them all, Miss Millay, Miss Teasdale, Mr Morton alone may match their excellences of the former year. The pick of the new collection seems Maxwell Anderson's "St Agnes' Morning," Katharine Lee Bates' "Brief Life," H. D.'s fragments of

Ancient Greece, Louise Ayres Garnett's dialect verse, Mr. Morton's two new sonnets, Adul Tima's "Wild Plum," Sara Teasdale's "The Dark Cup," Elinor Wylie's "Bronze Trumpets and Sea Water." Of especial interest to New Englanders are Miss Millay's lyrics, H. C. Gauss's "Salem,"

Robert Frost's four poems of New Hampshire, Winifred Viginia Jackson's stern picturings of Maine, E. A. Robinson's "Monadnock Through the Trees" and Harold Vinal's sonnet.

GORDON HILLMAN.

REAL ROYALTY

By Edward H. Richards

At times I think I'd like to be

A king or some celebrity;

A jeweled crown I'd like to wear

A bard I'd be or genius rare;

A knight, with purpose bold and high;
An aviator in the sky;

Such men as these appeal to me
And any one I'd like to be
Except myself, a common man,
Who has to work and save and plan.
But I have health and I have love;
The sun shines gladly up above;
My life is clean; I fear no foe,
I play my part as best I know,
I eat, I sleep, I smile, I sing;
By Jove, why am I not a King?

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