Drowsy Ones by Jay G. Sigmund

BRIEF NOTICES

Drowsy Ones, by Jay G. Sigmund. Prairie Publishing Co.,

Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

This is a quiet little book of rural portraits-at least,

most of it is a gallery of simple country people, done

usually in smooth quatrains which move according to rule,

without any especially personal rhythm. The portraits

are painted with sincerity and simplicity, by an observant

and intelligent artist. One feels that they are true to life,

though presented without much distinction of style.

The Singing Hill, by Mildred Weston. Harold Vinal.

Poems tender and slight to the point of childishness in

this volume have a cloying sweetness. Yet one feels their

sincerity, and hears in some of them a gay little simple

tune. Here, for example, is the final quatrain of Happi-

ness:

It takes me softly by the hand,

And as we pass along

It hangs on every blade of grass

A little wreath of song.

Dust and Spray, by Harold Leland Chaffey. Harold Vinal.

These are homespun verses, but with honest stuff in

their warp and woof. The skill is slight and the patterns

unimaginative, but one finds sympathetic neighborly ob-

servation of men and women young and old, trees, sunsets,

boats, etc., expressed in simple and obvious rhythms not

inappropriate to the mood and the subjects.