I..M COPYRIGHT, 1919, BY HARCOURT, BRACE AND HOWE, INC. COPYRIGHT, 1921, 1925, BY PRINTED IN THE U. S. A. BY RAHWAY, N. J. Graham A FOREWORD To the Third Revised Edition There are, we have been assured, nine and sixty ways of constructing tribal lays—“and every single one of them is right." And, although every critic seems eager to convince us that every single one of them is wrong, there are almost as many methods of making anthologies. In general, however, there are two results: the collection which is devoted to certain poets of a given time and the compilation which places its emphasis on the general poetry of the period. The one is necessarily particular and exclusive; the other and more inclusive type is likely to be less a detailed study and more a bird's-eye view of an era. The present anthology frankly belongs to the latter division; it endeavors to reflect the rise and fall of certain tendencies, the emergence of a score or so of outstanding figures, the changes in subject, idiom and taste of some three generations. Its chief purpose is to show, by the very variety of its inclusions, the range and diverse vigor of what, for lack of a more precise adjective, we call modern American poetry. Yet, in spite of its inclusiveness, this collection is sure to displease many because of its omissions. This cannot be helped, nor could it be avoided even in a work of encyclopedic proportions. Concerning ourselves for the moment with living poets (and this volume is principally occupied with contemporary poetry), the reader may gain some idea of the mere quantity of verse produced in the United States when he learns that, during the past decade, there has been an annual average of five hundred volumes of poetry and drama. Besides this flood of actual books, there have been at various times since 1912, more than thirty 1. rublishing there among. Tese catiant.cpher Spearing, among which any ave a consider the 752 the first in the fie. Near ork. vhat Miss The Fugitive, that sharp an of a group of Young Southern cel - general magazine nor illot - generous portion of femorisingly vrical generati herefore hat were this vol at wice the size of Mr. Bre if Anthologies of Magazine: Verse, the ounty outraged to find its own sw de missing In the end-every editor is d mixture of prejudice, preference and fsonat qete and here seems no way isitions mposed one's temperament. ately one c be more definite in rega: of the plume To begin with, the ngement It might have been ent he ontents nto distinct groups and scho ich cheme would have given impre Log would have been contradictory. O ticket contemporary writers with cintly ince so many of them are still de A F rue picture of period in the whowing ts tud character. It has reflect this very fux and diversit edient mile is then, in spire of cert vatisfactory one, an arbitrary Ce word "modern" as I have La post misleating adjective in the in bisar dan and, t In the case of the cusparti THE DIAL PRESS (Lincoln dations by Marianne M Doo, MEAD & COMPANYand from Lyrics of Lo GEORGE H. DORAN COM Grandeur by Williamn R J. Burr, Banners by Bab Joyce Kilmer, Vigils an and Hide and Seek by DOUBLEDAY, PAGE&COMP and Tobogganing on Pa with the Hoe and Linc ham. E. P. DUTTON & COMPANYby Madison Cawein an Wattles. FOUR SEAS COMPANY-for ig of Forslin, and The by Edwin Curra Liams. vii ctions from Obser vrics of Lowly Life aul Laurence Dun from Moons of side Fire by Amelia und Other Poems by "n by Aline Kilmer, from In Other Words P. Adams, The Man ns by Edwin Mark en The Vale of Tempe thsemane by Willard The Charnel Rose, The Conrad Aiken, and hes by William Carlos th Moods and Other by Joseph Auslander, rivolous by Guy Wet by Edna St. Vincent Edna St. Vincent Mil922, by Edna St. Vinright 1921, 1922, 1923, s from A Miscellany Poetry-A Miscellany, 225: The Book of the T. A. Daly, Less Panning by Edwin abs of the Sunburnt by Claude McKay, Challenge, The New ermeyer, Cross Cur nd Other Poems by Catch the Wind by Riley, the light patter of Eugene Field, the ironic chuckles of Franklin P. Adams, the Italian-American patois of T. A. Daly. In this welter of broken syllables, we have fresh evidence that America has become a melting-pot in the poetic as well as the ethnic use of the term. One thing remains to be added. Although the notes as well as the number of poems selected make the editor's preferences obvious, it must be made plain that he has attempted to make each poet's group representative. To accomplish this, not only the early but the most recent writing of the contemporaries appears here-some of it for the first time between covers. Wherever possible, the selections as well as the authors have been chronologically arranged; that is, the earlier work is placed at the beginning of each group, the later work following in approximately the order in which it was published. I (to discard the impersonal pronoun with relief) am greatly indebted to most of the living poets, not only for invaluable data, but for their collaborative assistance: many of the following pages embody their choice of their own poems as well as my preferences. Finally, I am grateful to the many publishers who have, in every instance, displayed a spirit of generosity without which the successive editions of this volume would not have been possible. This indebtedness is alphabetically acknowledged to the following firms, as holders of the copyrights: RICHARD G. BADGER-for selections from Sun and Saddle Leather and Grass-Grown Trails by Badger Clark. BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY-for two selections from The Complete Works of James Whitcomb Riley. BONI AND LIVERIGHT-for selections from Collected Poems of H. D. BRENTANO'S for selections from Chanteys and Ballads and The Passing God by Harry Kemp. NICHOLAS L. BROWN-for selections from Blood of Things by Alfred Kreymborg, Sonnets from the Patagonian by Donald Evans, and Nine Poems from a Valetudinarium by Donald Evans. THE CENTURY COMPANY-for selections from Merchants from Cathay by William Rose Benet and War and Laughter by James Oppenheim. |