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TITLE: THE ADVANCE OF ENGLISH POETRY IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
AUTHOR: WILLIAM LYON PHELPS
EBOOK: E06570 (O'Briens Book Cellar)
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

THE ADVANCE OF ENGLISH POETRY IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

BY

WILLIAM LYON PHELPS

Lampson Professor of English Literature at Yale

Member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters

  _O! 't is an easy thing
         To write and sing;
  But to write true, unfeigned verse
  Is very hard!_

  --HENRY VAUGHAN, _1655_

TO
MY FRIEND FOR FORTY YEARS

FRANK W. HUBBARD

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The publishers of the works of the poets from whom illustrative
passages are cited in this volume, have courteously and generously
given permission, and I take this opportunity of expressing my thanks
to The Macmillan Company, who publish the poems of Thomas Hardy,
William Watson, John Masefield, W. W. Gibson, Ralph Hodgson, W. B.
Yeats, "A. E.," James Stephens, E. A. Robinson, Vachel Lindsay, Amy
Lowell, Edgar Lee Masters, Sara Teasdale, J. C. Underwood, Fannie
Stearns Davis; to Henry Holt and Company, who publish the poems of
Walter De La Mare, Edward Thomas, Padraic Colum, Robert Frost, Louis
Untermeyer, Sarah N. Cleghorn, Margaret Widdemer, Carl Sandburg, and
the two poems by Henry A. Beers quoted in this book, which appeared in
_The Ways of Yale_; to Charles Scribner's Sons, publishers of the
poems of George Santayana, Henry Van Dyke, Corinne Roosevelt Robinson,
Alan Seeger; to Houghton, Mifflin and Company, publishers of the poems
of Josephine Peabody, Anna Hempstead Branch, and W. A. Bradley's
_Old Christmas_; to The John Lane Company, publishers of the
poems of Stephen Phillips, Rupert Brooke, Benjamin R. C. Low; to the
Frederick A. Stokes Company, publishers of the poems of Alfred Noyes,
Robert Nichols, Thomas MacDonagh, Witter Bynner; to the Yale
University Press, publishers of the poems of W. A. Percy, Brian
Hooker, W. E. Ben t, C. M. Lewis, E. B. Reed, F. E. Pierce, R. B.
Glaenzer, L. W. Dodd; to the Oxford University Press, publishers of
the poems of Robert Bridges; to Alfred A. Knopf, publisher of the
poems of W. H. Davies; to John W. Luce and Company, publishers of the
poems of John M. Synge; to Harper and Brothers, publishers of William
Watson's _The Man Who Saw_; to Longmans, Green and Company,
publishers of the poems of Willoughby Weaving; to Doubleday, Page and
Company, publishers of the poems of James Elroy Flecker; to the
Bobbs-Merrill Company, publishers of the poems of W. D. Foulke; to
Thomas B. Mosher, publisher of the poems of W. A. Bradley, W. E.
Henley; to James T. White and Company, publishers of William
Griffiths; Francis Thompson's _In No Strange Land_ appeared in
the _Athenaeum_ and _Lilium Regis_ in the _Dublin
Review_; the poem by Scudder Middleton appeared in _Contemporary
Verse_, that by Allan Updegraff in the _Forum_, and that by D.
H. Lawrence in _Georgian Poetry_ 1913-15, published by The Poetry
Bookshop, London.

The titles of the several volumes of poems with dates of publication
are given in my text.

I am grateful to the Yale University Librarians for help on
bibliographical matters, and to Professor Charles Bennett and Byrne
Hackett, Esquire, for giving some facts about the Irish poets.

W. L. P.

PREFACE

The material in this volume originally appeared in _The Bookman_,
1917-1918. It is now published with much addition and revision.

The Great War has had a stimulating effect on the production of
poetry. Professional poets have been spokesmen for the inarticulate,
and a host of hitherto unknown writers have acquired reputation. An
immense amount of verse has been written by soldiers in active
service. The Allies are fighting for human liberty, and this Idea is
an inspiration. It is comforting to know that some who have made the
supreme sacrifice will be remembered through their printed poems, and
it is a pleasure to aid in giving them public recognition.

Furthermore, the war, undertaken by Germany to dominate the world by
crushing the power of Great Britain, has united all English-speaking
people as nothing else could have done. In this book, all poetry
written in the English language is considered as belonging to English
literature.

It should be apparent that I am not a sectarian in art, but am
thankful for poetry wherever I find it. I have endeavored to make
clear the artistic, intellectual, and spiritual significance of many
of our contemporary English-writing poets. The difficulties of such an
undertaking are obvious; but there are two standards of measure. One
is the literature of the past, the other is the life of today. I judge
every new poet by these.

CONTENTS

I SOME CONTRASTS--HENLEY, THOMPSON, HARDY, KIPLING

II PHILLIPS, WATSON, NOYES, HOUSMAN

III JOHN MASEFIELD

IV GIBSON AND HODGSON

V BROOKE, FLECKER, DE LA MARE, AND OTHERS

VI THE IRISH POETS

VII AMERICAN VETERANS AND FORERUNNERS

VIII VACHEL LINDSAY AND ROBERT FROST

IX AMY LOWELL, ANNA BRANCH, EDGAR LEE MASTERS, LOUIS UNTERMEYER

X SARA TEASDALE, ALAN SEEGER, AND OTHERS

XI A GROUP OF YALE POETS

APPENDIX

INDEX

THE ADVANCE OF ENGLISH POETRY IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

CHAPTER I

SOME CONTRASTS--HENLEY, THOMPSON, HARDY, KIPLING

  Meaning of the word "advance"--the present widespread interest
  in poetry--the spiritual warfare--Henley and Thompson--Thomas
  Hardy a prophet in literature--_The Dynasts_--his
  atheism--his lyrical power--Kipling the Victorian--his future
  possibilities--Robert Bridges--Robert W. Service.

Although English poetry of the twentieth century seems inferior to the
poetry of the Victorian epoch, for in England there is no one equal to
Tennyson or Browning, and in America no one equal to Poe, Emerson, or
Whitman, still it may fairly be said that we can discern an advance in
English poetry not wholly to be measured either by the calendar and
the clock, or by sheer beauty of expression. I should not like to say
that Joseph Conrad is a greater writer than Walter Scott; and yet in
_The Nigger of the Narcissus_ there is an intellectual sincerity,
a profound psychological analysis, a resolute intention to discover
and to reveal the final truth concerning the children of the sea, that
one would hardly expect to find in the works of the wonderful Wizard.
Shakespeare was surely a greater poet than Wordsworth; but the man of
the Lakes, with the rich inheritance of two centuries, had a capital
of thought unpossessed by the great dramatist, which, invested by his
own genius, enabled him to draw returns from nature undreamed of by
his mighty predecessor. Wordsworth was not great enough to have
written _King Lear_; and Shakespeare was not late enough to have
written _Tintern Abbey_. Every poet lives in his own time, has a
share in its scientific and philosophical advance, and his
individuality is coloured by his experience. Even if he take a Greek
myth for a subject, he will regard it and treat it in the light of the
day when he sits down at his desk, and addresses himself to the task
of composition. It is absurd to call the Victorians old-fashioned or
out of date; they were as intensely modern as we, only their modernity
is naturally not ours.

A great work of art is never old-fashioned; because it expresses in
final form some truth about human nature, and human nature never
changes--in comparison with its primal elements, the mountains are
ephemeral. A drama dealing with the impalpable human soul is more
likely to stay true than a treatise on geology. This is the notable
advantage that works of art have over works of science, the advantage
of being and remaining true. No matter how important the contribution
of scientific books, they are alloyed with inevitable error, and after
the death of their authors must be constantly revised by lesser men,
improved by smaller minds; whereas the masterpieces of poetry, drama
and fiction cannot be revised, because they are always true. The
latest edition of a work of science is the most valuable; of
literature, the earliest.

Apart from the natural and inevitable advance in poetry that every
year witnesses, we are living in an age characterized both in England
and in America by a remarkable advance in poetry as a vital influence.
Earth's oldest inhabitants probably cannot remember a time when there
were so many poets in activity, when so many books of poems were not
only read, but bought and sold, when poets were held in such high
esteem, when so much was written and published about poetry, when the
mere forms of verse were the theme of such hot debate. There are
thousands of minor poets, but poetry has ceased to be a minor subject.
Any one mentally alive cannot escape it. Poetry is in the air, and
everybody is catching it. Some American magazines are exclusively
devoted to the printing of contemporary poems; anthologies are
multiplying, not "Keepsakes" and "Books of Gems," but thick volumes
representing the bumper crop of the year. Many poets are reciting
their poems to big, eager, enthusiastic audiences, and the atmosphere
is charged with the melodies of ubiquitous minstrelsy.


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