Brearley School - Brearley Book Yearbook (New York, NY)

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JEANNE D'ARC Armour of silver, and a milk-white horse They gave you, and you found a holy sword. Those are a saint's own trappings, and, of course You were a faithful servant of the Lord. But a black charger had become you best, And golden mail that dazzled all men's eyes, And a great sword that had not taken rest And spent a century hidden from the skies. Queens dress in white and silver, and a king Must have a sword with relics in the hilt. You needed no saint's prayers for pardoning, No virgin robes to show you free from guilt, Though every man, through some obscure device, Considers fire wickeder than ice. BETSY WYCKOITF. DIFFERENCE FROM ME IS THE MEASURE OF ABSURDITYH ' Our sense of humor, on which we pride ourselves so much, is merely our ability to appreciate absurdity. A situation in which the acting characters are thrown out of their habitual places in their routine of life, either by loss of dignity, or by being put in some incongruous position, seems ridiculous and therefore amusing to us. Very few of us, however, are able to laugh when we ourselves are the victims of the joke. To be amused by the plight of some one else, we must feel, at the time, a sense of security from a similar plight. I think it funny, when, walking along the street, more or less inconspicuously dressed, I see an old lady arrayed in all the finery of fifty years ago. Were I dressed likewise, however, I should understand the old lady's annoyance at being made fun of, and should pity her instead of joining in the laughter. I indulge my taste for violent color in orange and brown sweaters, red dresses and green hats. I think Agnes Halsey is thoroughly ridiculous to indulge hers in white linen dresses with red embroidery. I should never wear them. Therefore, in my opinion, they are not worthy of being worn. My hair is straight. I think any woman who will sit for four hours with every hair on her head held up so tightly that she can not even move her eyebrows, and allow E543

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salamanders. Most of the center of the room is occupied by another table, hold- ing Chemical Sets No. 15 and 20. He is very proud of his scientific ability. When he gets Chemical Set No. 35, he will have a laboratory comparable to that of the Rockefeller Institute. At the age of seven he first heard of Tarzan, who influenced him greatly. I believe there was a time about a year ago when he went about clad in a tiger- skin, with the tiger's tail tied like a fillet about his head. He was restrained with great difliculty from going abroad in this attire. Every day at luncheon his mother is properly horrified by sanguinary ac- counts of spit-ball battles at school. He generally brings home a small English boy who has won his admiration because he can construct an electric light that can be put in a fish bowl without exploding. With this contrivance the Boy examines the inner workings of a tropical f1sh's system more closely. He is at the embarrassing age when he thinks it feminine to be polite. His most frequent reply to a dulcet good-bye is go jump in a lake or sit on a tack, or some other such admonition. Whenever there is a male guest in the house, the Boy thinks he is being perfectly charming if he asks him to wrestle. Of course, the guest, not to be outdone in virility by a mere eleven-year-old, wrestles. Laziness is his greatest vice, by moderately exercising his persuasive powers he can make anyone do anything for him. Last spring he was desirous of a flshpool in back of the house. He looked appealingly at his sister and in Eve minutes she was helping him mix cement. Any boy at this age considers swearing the mark of manhood. The Boy is trying to impress his family with his right to do as his father does. On suitable occasions he utters a very sheepish Hell, and then looks apprehensively at his mother. When every one laughs, he does not know whether to be relieved or awfully angry. He has had any number of dogs but the one he liked best was nothing more than a mutt, a combination of police-dog and collie. He found him in the street and called him, despite the protestations of his more elegant sisters, Plucky. When Plucky died, the Boy became uncontrollable and broke a butcher's window. He is saving his money now so that when he is twenty, he and his mother may go to live in the heart of Africa. If he relents toward his sisters, they will be allowed to visit him. BERYL DAWSON. U31

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herself to be subjected to enough heat to cook a meal, then pay the price of a nice dress for the sake of having a permanent wave, is the limit of absurdity and a living proof of feminine stupidity. Any one who does something I do not do, wears something I do not wear, says something I do not say, or reads something I do not enjoy reading is, to me, an idiot. Einstein says that, as everything is relative to something, we must choose our standard. I have chosen myself. Any one who differs from me is wrong and any one who is wrong is absurd. PAULINE MANSIIIP. PROUD WATERS Green, high-crested, the waves race into the shore And break themselves, and gather up their pieces, And rush away, and returning again as before They shatter again into pieces. They are clear as ice, and then they break the clea rness And tear apart in a bubbling milky foam. But fand this is what makes the wild waves' queernessj They rise again from the foam. fTo ruin themselves they reassemble themselves. They are fierce, they are wild, they are foolish, say what you will. They exult in their strength when they pound on the rocks' rough shelves Which they cannot do when they take good care of themselves, Remaining clear, and staying quiet and still.j It is not a good life to be an upheaving wave That crashes forever against a stony shore, And I know that no power on earth is able to save The waves that break on the shore. But I do not like this slipping about the sea, I have broken before and I wish to break again, With the rest of the ocean half jealous, half laughing at me As I rush at the rocks again. BETSY WYCKOFF, Poetry Prize 1930. E553