Fear of a foe is not a temptation,
since editors are too humble and harmless to have any. There are of
course certain slight offices which an editor can render, especially
to those whose writings he does not intend to print, but John McCrae
required none of these. His work was finished to the last point. He
would bring his piece in his hand and put it on the table. A wise editor
knows when to keep his mouth shut; but now I am free to say that he
never understood the nicety of the semi-colon, and his writing was too
heavily stopped.

He was not of those who might say,--take it or leave it; but
rather,--look how perfect it is; and it was so. Also he was the first
to recognize that an editor has some rights and prejudices, that certain
words make him sick; that certain other words he reserves for his own
use,--"meticulous" once a year, "adscititious" once in a life time.
This explains why editors write so little. In the end, out of mere good
nature, or seeing the futility of it all, they contribute their words to
contributors and write no more.

The volume of verse as here printed is small. The volume might be
enlarged; it would not be improved. To estimate the value and institute
a comparison of those herein set forth would be a congenial but useless
task, which may well be left to those whose profession it is to offer
instruction to the young. To say that "In Flanders Fields" is not the
best would involve one in controversy. It did give expression to a mood
which at the time was universal, and will remain as a permanent record
when the mood is passed away.

The poem was first called to my attention by a Sapper officer, then
Major, now Brigadier. He brought the paper in his hand from his billet
in Dranoutre. It was printed on page 468, and Mr. 'Punch' will be glad
to be told that, in his annual index, in the issue of December 29th,
1915, he has misspelled the author's name, which is perhaps the only
mistake he ever made. This officer could himself weave the sonnet with
deft fingers, and he pointed out many deep things. It is to the sappers
the army always goes for "technical material".

The poem, he explained, consists of thirteen lines in iambic tetrameter
and two lines of two iambics each; in all, one line more than the
sonnet's count. There are two rhymes only, since the short lines must
be considered blank, and are, in fact, identical. But it is a difficult
mode. It is true, he allowed, that the octet of the sonne