Chapter I: Front Matter

CAP AND GOWN

A Treasury of College Verse

Selected by

Frederic Lawrence Knowles

_Editor of "The Golden Treasury of American Songs and Lyrics," etc.

_1897_

TO THE REVERED MEMORY OF A GREAT SCHOLAR AND GREAT TEACHER WHOM I WAS ONCE PROUD TO CALL MY FRIEND,

Frances James Child,

THIS LITTLE BOOK IS GRATEFULLY INSCRIBED.

_In "Cap and Gown" you look in vain For epic or heroic strain. Not ours to scale the heights sublime, Which hardly masters dare to climb; We only sing of youth and joy, And love,--the credo of the boy!_

PREFATORY NOTE

The gay verses which celebrate undergraduate life must not be taken too seriously. They seldom pretend to the dignity of poetry. College verse, if I understand it, is verse suited to the period and point of view of undergraduate days. Light, graceful, humorous, sparkling,--this it should be for the most part; serious sometimes, it is true,--for young men and women about to take upon themselves the responsibilities of mature life are at heart by no means frivolous, but touching the note of grief, if at all, almost as though by accident. Life is often sad enough in the after-years, and for the period of sorrow, sad verse may be in place. Happy they who have not yet traded cap and bells (never far hidden under cap and gown) for the

"Sable stole of cypress lawn."

Happier still if they never need make such a sorry exchange.

Yes, like all sound art, college verse must, above all else, be honest. Let us not say, however, that the thoughtful moods of young men and women may not sincerely be set to the music of verse. One department in this collection bears the name "In Serious Mood," and its sentiment rings as true as that of any other.

In looking over very many undergraduate papers, I have been struck with several facts. I will give them for what they are worth, leaving their explanation to others. First, there seems to be a general fondness for the sonnet, and a very general lack of success in writing it. Second, the French forms of light verse are exceedingly popular--particularly the rondeau, ballade, and triolet. These, more easily lending themselves to gay moods than does the sonnet, are written with much greater success. Triolets are perhaps least often, rondeaus most often, successful. Third, purely sentimental verse is little written in women's colleges, its place being taken by poetry of nature or of reflection. Oddly enough, when it _is_ attempted, the writer usually fancies herself the lover, and describes feminine, not masculine, beauty. College girls show possibly more maturity of reflective power than do their brothers, but they are notably weaker in the sense of humor. Fourth, amongst so much merely graceful verse, there are not wanting touches here and there of genuine poetry. I shall be disappointed if the reader does not discover many such in this little book.

While I have confined myself, for the most part, to verse printed in the college publications of the past five years, I have overstepped this limit in a few instances. None of the poems in the present book, however, were included in the first series published in 1892.

Thanks are due Messrs. Andrus & Church, of Ithaca, N.Y., for their generous loan of bound files of the _Cornell Era_, to the assistant librarian of Harvard University for numerous courtesies, and to the editors of many college papers, without whose kind cooperation the second series of "Cap and Gown" would have been impossible.

F.L.K.

COLLEGE PUBLICATIONS REPRESENTED.

AMHERST COLLEGE _Amherst Literary Monthly, The_.

BALTIMORE, WOMAN'S COLLEGE OF _Kalends, The_.

BOWDOIN COLLEGE _Bowdoin Orient, The._
_Bowdoin Quill, The_.

BROWN UNIVERSITY _Brown Magazine, The_.
_Brunonian, The_.

BRYN MAWR COLLEGE _Bryn Mawr Lantern, The_.

CALIFORNIA UNIVERSITY _University of California Magazine._

CHICAGO UNIVERSITY _University of Chicago Weekly, The_.

COLGATE UNIVERSITY _Madisonensis_.

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY _Columbia Literary Monthly, The._
_Columbia Spectator, The._
_Morningside, The_.

CORNELL UNIVERSITY _Cornell Era, The_.
_Cornell Magazine, The_.

DARTMOUTH COLLEGE _Dartmouth Literary Monthly, The._
_Dartmouth Lyrics, 16mo, 1893_.

HAMILTON COLLEGE _Hamilton Literary Monthly, The_.

HARVARD UNIVERSITY _Harvard Advocate, The_.
_Harvard Lampoon, The_.
_Harvard Monthly, The_.

KANSAS, UNIVERSITY OF _Kansas University Weekly_.

LEHIGH UNIVERSITY _Lehigh Burr, The_.

LELAND STANFORD UNIVERSITY _Palo Alto, The_.
_Sequoia_.
_Stanford Quad, The_
_Four-Leaved Clover: Stanford Rhymes,
16mo, 1896_.

MASS. INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY _Tech, The_.

MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY _Inlander, The._
_Wrinkle, The_

MOUNT HOLYOKE COLLEGE _Mount Holyoke, The_

NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY _Syllabus, The_.

OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY _Makio, The_.

PENNSYLVANIA, UNIVERSITY OF _Red and Blue_.

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY _Nassau Literary Monthly_.

ROCHESTER, UNIVERSITY OF _Campus, The_.

SMITH COLLEGE _Smith College Monthly_.

SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY _University Herald_.

TEXAS, UNIVERSITY OF _University of Texas Magazine_.

TRINITY COLLEGE _Trinity Tablet, The_.

TUFTS COLLEGE _Tuftonian, The_.

UNION COLLEGE _Concordiensis, The_.
_Garnet, The_.
_Parthenon, The_.

VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY _Vanderbilt Observer, The_.

VASSAR COLLEGE _Vassar Miscellany, The_.

VIRGINIA, UNIVERSITY OF _Virginia University Magazine_.

WELLESLEY COLLEGE _Wellesley Magazine, The_.
_Wellesley Lyrics, 16mo, 1894_.

WELLS COLLEGE _Cardinal, The_.

WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY _Wesleyan Argus, The_.
_Wesleyan Literary Monthly, The_.
_Olla Podrida, The_.
_Wesleyan Verse, 16mo, 1894_.

WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY _College Folio, The_.

WILLIAMS COLLEGE _Williams Literary Monthly, The_.
_Williams Weekly, The_.

WISCONSIN, UNIVERSITY OF _Badger, The_.
_Wisconsin Aegis_.

YALE UNIVERSITY _Yale Courant, The_.
_Yale Literary Magazine, The._
_Yale Record, The_.

* * * * *

~Soap-Bubbles.~

As a little child at play Blows upon a pipe of clay Bubbles, evanescent, bright, With their iridescent light, So I fling upon the wind Verses of the bubble kind.

And my friend with eyes of blue Looks my dainty verses through, Pauses from his books awhile, With an intellectual smile; For my fancy seems as naught To this man of deeper thought.

Still I plead as my excuse: "Even bubbles have their use. They are perfect while they live, And their short career may give, As they shimmer, and are flown, Some suggestion for our own.

"Let their beauty, pure and glad, Make another soul less sad, And, as upward they are whirled, Let them show their little world, Floating clouds and perfect sky, Warmly mirrored, ere they die."

HERBERT MULLER HOPKINS. _Columbia Literary Monthly._