The strangest and most fun thing, poetically speaking, is John Gould Fletcher's "Vers Libre and Advertisements." In it, Fletcher claims that the ad men of America have been writing the finest free verse around for some time, and includes entertaining examples like this one:
Fletcher's piece is certainly satirical, but I wonder if its flippancy and fun hides real bitterness: an early Imagist, Fletcher's mode of vers libre never quite fit in with the others. He was florid while they were spare, and the critique may not be as self-deprecatory as it seems at first.
Also in poetics: one William Saphier (what a name!) opens the issue with "Etchings (Not to be Read Aloud)," which is pretty cool and unusual, pieces making a claim for their visual value in direct contradiction to their sound value. Unfortunately the move is cooler than the poems.
Quick Notes:
Margaret Anderson's editorial continues her defense of Margaret Sanger, the outlaw advocate for contraception. She attacks Anthony Comstock head-on--no wonder TLR is going to have so much trouble with the law. Her editorial mentions as an aside "the stunning things in The Egoist."
I noticed how delighted The Little Review is with itself--many pieces are self-referential to the awesomeness of TLR. Among these, "The Critics' Catastrophe," a play about what happens when a London music critic shows up in Chicago to write for TLR.
Richard Aldington contributes an essay on the poetry of Paul Fort.
George Franklin contributes a strange prose poem, "Hunger."
William S. Braithwaite's anthology of magazine verse gets negatively reviewed--he contributes poetry to The Crisis.
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