Pivot

It is common practice for a pipsqueak versifier to identify himself with a better poet by stealing his lines. But for a minor poetess to accuse a minor poet of stealing her queer numbers is something again. Last week Nathalia Crane, Brooklyn child "prodigy," author of a book called Lava Lane which amazed critics by its pomposity, its facility, its jaw-dislocating decasyllabics, and by the fact that it had been written by a person not yet adolescent, wrote a letter to the editor of the New York World in which she intimated certain things about Joseph Auslander, author of Sunrise Trumpets, himself an odd wordsmith:

"Sir:

"Joseph Auslander has honored me by stepping close to one of my lines. It is a method of courtesy that I am not yet familiar with. Dec. 25, 1926, in Brooklyn Life he has some verses entitled 'Historia Amoris Mea.'

"One of the central sets follows:

Hand on the bird That pivots over a spinning jet of air. Treading his tiny whirlpool--let my word Soften the iron synod of despair.

"In my book Lava Lane the fifth set of 'The First Reformer' (p. 37) reads:

Across the downs a hummingbird Came dipping through the bowers, He pivoted on emptiness To scrutinize the flowers.

"To those free from the complacence of the plagiarists it is obvious that Mr. Auslander, critic and verse writer, has done me great honor.

"With deepest respect,

(Signed) NATHALIA CRANE

And indeed, said critics, anyone could see that the word "pivot" was used in both poems.