Anthology of Magazine Verse for 1913

Anthology of Magazine Verse for 1913

Poetry is one of the realities that persist. The faade and dome of palace and temple, the monuments of heroes and saints, crumble before the ruining breath of time, while the Psalms last. So when another year passes and we sum up our achievements, there is no achievement more vital in registering the soul of a people than its poetry. But in all things that men do, their relationship is objective except those things in which art, religion, love, and nature express their influence through the private thoughts and feelings of men. These four things are the realities, all the others are symbols. And the essence of art, as well as religion and love and nature, is a conscious and mysterious thing, called Poetry. And men will find, if they will only stop to look, that at the bottom of all this poetry, no matter what the theme or the particular artistic shaping, there is something with which they are familiar, because in their own souls there has been an unceasing mystery which they find named in the magic utterance of some lonely and neglected maker of verses. The poetry in the magazines for this past year has been of a general high standard. The long poems have been well sustained, and there has been a larger quantity of pure lyric pieces than in the past two or three years. The influence of Masefield has shown itself in American verse, notably in the two long poems by Harry Kemp, The Harvestvi Hand and The Factory. One of the noblest poems of the year is Henry van Dykes Daybreak in the Grand Caon of Arizona, which breathes a fine national spirit, full of reverence for the greatness with which the American destiny is symbolized in the natural grandeur of our country. Mr. Markham has a long narrative in The Shoes of Happiness, full of his visionary and spiritual promptings. And in The Vision of Gettysburg Mr. Robert Underwood Johnson reflects also the national spirit with particular significance. The poetry of the year in volumes has not been as ample as last year. The three poets who have aroused most discussion are the Bengali poet Tagore, who brought to the Western world in Gitanjali a spiritual message full of mystic but exalted idealism; Francis Thompson, the great Catholic poet, because of the publication of his collected works; and Robert Bridges, who, by his appointment to the English laureateship, became known to a large number of readers who had hitherto been unfamiliar with his very perfect and delicate gift of lyric beauty. Of American poets the volumes by Fannie Stearns Davis, William Rose Bent, Josephine Preston Peabody, Margaret Root Garvin, and George Edward Woodberry are the most significant. The most important book of poems of the year by an American poet, however, is that of Nicholas Vachel Lindsay, General William Booth Enters into Heaven and Other Poems. Here is a man with a big vision, with a fine originality, and an art that is particularly his own. There has been no Lyric Year this autumn, but a littlevii volume that serves in some sense its purpose is Miss Jessie B. Rittenhouses Little Book of Modern Verse, which is intended to represent the quality of contemporary American verse. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 63265
Author: Braithwaite, William Stanley
Release Date: Sep 22, 2020
Format: eBook
Language: English

Contributors

Editor: Braithwaite, William Stanley, 1878-1962