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Digital Kenyon: Research, Scholarship, and Creative Exchange The Kenyon Collegian College Archives 4-1-1902 Kenyon Collegian - April 1902 Follow this and additional works at: https://digital.kenyon.edu/collegian Recommended Citation "Kenyon Collegian - April 1902" (1902). The Kenyon Collegian. 1390. https://digital.kenyon.edu/collegian/1390 This News Article is brought to you for free and open access by the College Archives at Digital Kenyon: Research, Scholarship, and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in The Kenyon Collegian by an authorized administrator of Digital Kenyon: Research, Scholarship, and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Cfye Kenyon Collegian. DEVOTED TO THE IN7 ERE8T8 OF KENTON COLLEGE Associate Editors, Business Manager, Editor in-Chi- ef, EDWARD A. RODGER8, '02. , WALTER T. COLLINS, '02. 02. J. COLE McKIM, Lyle Tatk P. Crohlet, '03. Ass't Manager, MAXWELL GANTER, '04. THOMAS J. GODDARD, 'OS. M. T. CARTMELL, '03. Vol. XXVIII. GAMBIER, OHIO, APRIL, 1902. No. 1 (Editorial. QNE of the most disgusting features of our life here is the pitiably-childis- h misbehavior of students at the services in the college chapel. To be sure there are accidents, such as ludicrous errors in the music, which may bring an involuntary and, perhaps, pardonable smile to our lips, but certainly the extent to which this deplorable misconduct is carried is inexcusable as well as horribly sacreligious. We are well aware that there are among us certain students who delight, with a demeanor not unlike precocity in calling themselves by the high sounding names, Agnostic and Atheist, and to such we can only plead in these columns that the essential qualities of a gentleman and scholar is a respect for the feelings of others. It is no excuse for such men to say that they do not feel obliged to behave themselves decently because chapel is compulsory. They are here eujoying the 2 THE KENYON COLLEGIAN. exceptional advantages which the church offers in her educational institutions, and in return they are in honor bound to be governed by the rules of the institution to which they belong. To others it should be a sufficient restraint to remember that they are in a temple hallowed to the Lord their God, who is not only Omnipresent and All-seein- g, but is here more especially enthroned on His altar, for this is the habitation of His House and the place where His Honor dwelleth. It is only a matter of minor consideration that the latest exhibi- tion of the sort (at this writing) was in the presence of a visitor, but still it is a pity that such was the case, for it is by just such a course of conduct we will inevitably become known as a body of men entirely bereft of reverence for God, and absolutely lacking all courtesy to our fellow men. FTER writing the above we learn that choral services will, for the time being, be discontinued. While there are few things more beautiful than a reverent and well rendered choral service, there is nothing no matter how excel- lent it may be in the abstract which can be endured when it has become the cloak for such unconcealed merriment, fidgetting, and catermauling as have, of late, marred these services. YHILE we do not look forward with much hope that success will immediately attend them we are glad to see the efforts that are being made by the student body to become active participants in local politics. They cannot fail to be of great benefit to all concerned, and we are inclined to think that there is a bright outlook for a not very distant future if these efforts are constantly sustained. 'E go to press just at the beginning of another series of final exam-amination- s. The 'honor system ' is to be followed again, and it is to be hoped that its right to exist will be firmly established by the undergraduates of Kenyon. The first trial of this system met with a ULYSSES. 3 great measure of success and if the committee can bring two more favorable reports, it bids fair to become a fixed institution here. Last term the honor examinations came particularly hard on some of us in view of the fact that they were unlooked for, and rose out of conditions which came into existence towards the end of the term. We trust, and indeed, have good reason to believe that the work done this term has been of a nature which will greatly lesson this bulwark of temptation. Still in many cases it will be hard, up hill work, and we must fortify ourselves as we prize the honor of Kenyon against any attacks of weakness which mayvassail us. Ulysses. BY STEPHEN PHILLIPS. A drama in prologue and three acts. Pp. 178. New York. The MacMillan Co. The appearance of Stephen Phillips's latest book, now that he is generally acknowledged to be the foremost English dramatist of the day, is anticipated in America as well as in England with pleasure and eagerness by a number of people which increases as Mr. Phillips's renown spreads. His fame has constantly grown since the publication of his first book of poems until with the succession of three dramas of marked excellence and beauty, his reputation has been confirmed. His poetry, while it has only so far placed him among the number of best living poets, gives promise of something in the future that will establish him as one of the leading men of letters in the history of literature. Some of his poetry has been nearly Miltonesque in its dignity ; his verse in a few instances has been compared with Pope's for its perfection; and his plays written in blank verse with wonderful feeling have been declared Shakespearian. However much adverse criticism has been leveled against him, it is not denied that both his poetic genius and his dramatic power have a truly wonderful scope. 4 THE KENYON COLLEGIAN. His dramatic ability has manifestly increased until in his last drama, Ulysses, he has succeeded with a theme that by previous and frequent attempts was pronounced impracticable in those very points in which he has excelled. Not only has he done this but he has taken events from the life of Ulysses that had never before been suggested on account of the seeming impossibility of their adoption to the stage. Not one before him dared to think of portraying the descent into Hades; Stephen Phillips has made it one of the most power- ful moments in the whole play. In darkness, on a precipitous descent dimly seen, with a glowing river stagnant at the bottom, amidst a whirring of wings and cold blasts of air with indistinguishable shapes of spirits flitting about him, Ulysses descends into Hades. With fear and trembling, hesitating now as he sees this awful void before him and remembers the fair world left behind, then taking cour- age when he thinks of Penelope and Tebmachus awaiting him, he goes slowly on. Amid the cries of children and the awful shapes of Furies pursuing him, listening to the petitions of the damned, and observing with horror the vain efforts of Tantalus and Sisyphus, and finally try- ing to clasp the shadowy form of his loved mother to his breast, he endures all to get home. Home is the theme of the drama and duty the ever paramount issue. From beginning to end home is the desired object and duty is opposed to pleasure. When Calypso offers him immortality and tries in vain to cast on him her weakened spell, he says : " Goddess and mortal we have met and kissed, Now am I mad for silence and for tears, For the earthly voice that breaks at earthly ills, The mortal hands that make and smooth the bed. I am an hungered for that human breast, That bosom a sweet hive of memories There, there to lay my head to die, There, there to be, there only, there at last ! My wife, my wife ! I'd go down to hell, if hell led home." And how beautifully are the roads of duty and of pleasure con- - ULYSSES. 5 trasted; the one, soft and easy ; the other, hard and rough. But in all the ease dissatisfaction was present. " In his wildest kiss, a kiss with- held and in all that sweet a something stern." How better could this be expressed than in these words : " This odorous, amorous, isle of violets, That leans all leaves into the glassy deep, With brooding music over noontide moss, And low dirge of lily-swingi- ng bees Then stars like opening eyes on closing flowers, Falls on my heart. Ah, God ! that I might see Gaunt Ithaca stand up out of the surge, Yon lashed and screaming rocks, and sobbing crags, The screaming gull and the wild-flyin- g cloud." From the prologue until Penelope falls unto her husband's arms the poetry is full of dramatic feeling and expression, detailing the character with the most wonderful precision. The climaxes are reached and left so gradually and gently that the movement is devel- oped to the mind with admirable gradation. It is slowly that Ulysses realizes his terrible trial by descent into Hades, but not so slowly that it is not a terrible shock when Athene tells him he must do it. The last scene, where Ulysses comes home to find his wife sur- rounded by suitors, and his possessions diminished by their prodi- gality, offers an opportunity for depicting in all its wiliness the much famed cunning of Ulysses.