Georgian Poetry 1920-22
by
Lascelles Abercrombie et al.
The Poetry Bookshop
35 Devonshire St. Theobalds Rd.
London W.C.1
MCMXXII
To Alice Meynell
Table of Contents
Prefatory Note
Lascelles Abercrombie
Martin Armstrong
Honey Harvest
Miss Thompson Goes Shopping
Edmund Blunden
Almswomen
Perch-fishing
The Giant Puffball
The Child's Grave
April Byeway
William H. Davies
A Bird's Anger
The Villain
Love's Caution
Wasted Hours
The Truth
Walter de la Mare
The Moth
Sotto Voce
Sephina
Titmouse
Suppose
The Corner Stone
John Drinkwater
Persuasion
John Freeman
I Will Ask
The Evening Sky
The Caves
Moon-Bathers
In Those Old Days
Caterpillars
Change
Wilfrid Gibson
Fire
Barbara Fell
Philip and Phœbe Ware
By the Weir
Worlds
Robert Graves
Lost Love
Morning Phœnix
A Lover Since Childhood
Sullen Moods
The Pier-Glass
The Troll's Nosegay
Fox's Dingle
The General Elliott
The Patchwork Bonnet
Richard Hughes
The Singing Furies
Moonstruck
Vagrancy
Poets, Painters, Puddings
William Kerr
In Memoriam D. O. M.
Past and Present
The Audit
The Apple Tree
Her New-Year Posy
Counting Sheep
The Trees at Night
The Dead
D. H. Lawrence
Snake
Harold Monro
Thistledown
Real Property
Unknown Country
Robert Nichols
Night Rhapsody
November
J. D. C. Fellow
After London
On a Friend who died suddenly upon the Seashore
Tenebræ
When All is Said
Frank Prewett
To my Mother in Canada
Voices of Women
The Somme Valley
Burial Stones
Snow-Buntings
The Kelso Road
Baldon Lane
Come Girl, and Embrace
Peter Quennell
Procne
A Man to a Sunflower
Perception
Pursuit
V. Sackville-West
A Saxon Song
Mariana in the North
Full Moon
Sailing Ships
Trio
Bitterness
Evening
Edward Shanks
The Rock Pool
The Glade
Memory
Woman's Song
The Wind
A Lonely Place
J. C. Squire
Elegy
Meditation in Lamplight
Late Snow
Francis Brett Young
Seascape
Scirocco
The Quails
Song at Santa Cruz
Bibliography
Prefatory Note
When the fourth volume of this series was published three years ago, many of the critics who had up till then, as Horace Walpole said of God, been the dearest creatures in the world to me, took another turn. Not only did they very properly disapprove my choice of poems: they went on to write as if the Editor of Georgian Poetry were a kind of public functionary, like the President of the Royal Academy; and they asked — again, on this assumption, very properly — who was E. M. that he should bestow and withhold crowns and withhold crowns and sceptres, and decide that this or that poet was or was not to count.
This, in the words of Pirate Smee, was a kind of a compliment, but it was also, to quote the same hero, galling; and I have wished for an opportunity of disowning the pretension which I found attributed to me of setting up as a pundit, or a pontiff, or a Petronius Arbiter; for I have neither the sure taste, nor the exhaustive reading, nor the ample leisure which would be necessary in any such role.
The origin of these books, which is set forth in the memoir of Rupert Brooke, was simple and humble. I found, ten years ago, that there were a number of writers doing work which appeared to me extremely good, but which was narrowly known; and I thought that anyone, however unprofessional and meagrely gifted, who presented a conspectus of it in a challenging and manageable form might be doing a good turn both to the poets and to the reading public. So, I think I may claim, it proved to be. The first volume seemed to supply a want. It was eagerly bought; the continuation of the affair was at once taken so much for granted as to be almost unavoidable; and there has been no break in the demand for the successive books. If they have won for themselves any position, there is no possible reason except the pleasure they have given.
Having entered upon a course of disclamation, I should like to make a mild protest against a further charge that Georgian Poetry has merely encouraged a small clique of mutually indistinguishable poetasters to abound in their own and each other's sense or nonsense. It is natural that the poets of a generation should have points in common; but to my fond eye those who have graced these collections look as diverse as sheep to their shepherd, or the members of a Chinese family to their uncle; and if there is an allegation which I would deny with both hands, it is this: that an insipid sameness is the chief characteristic of an anthology which offers — to name almost at random seven only out of forty (oh ominous academic number!) — the work of Messrs. Abercrombie, Davies, de la Mare, Graves, Lawrence, Nichols and Squire.
The ideal Georgian Poetry — a book which would err neither by omission nor by inclusion, and would contain the best, and only the best poems of the best, and only the best poets of the day — could only be achieved, if at all, by dint of a Royal Commission. The present volume is nothing of the kind.
I may add one word bearing on my aim in selection. Much admired modern work seems to me, in its lack of inspiration and its disregard of form, like gravy imitating lava. Its upholders may retort that much of the work which I prefer seems to them, in its lack of inspiration and its comparative finish, like tapioca imitating pearls. Either view — possibly both — may be right. I will only say that with an occasional exception for some piece of rebelliousness or even levity which may have taken my fancy, I have tried to choose no verse but such as in Wordsworth's phrase:
The high and tender
Muses shall accept
With gracious smile,
deliberately pleased.
There are seven new-comers — Messrs. Armstrong, Blunden, Hughes, Kerr, Prewett and Quennell, and Miss Sackville-West. Thanks and acknowledgments are due to Messrs. Jonathan Cape, Chatto and Windus, R. Cobden-Sanderson, Constable, W. Collins, Heinemann, Hodder and Stoughton, John Lane, Macmillan, Martin Secker, Selwyn and Blount, Sidgwick and Jackson, and the Golden Cockerel Press; and to the Editors of The Chapbook, The London Mercury and The Westminster Gazette.
E. M.
July, 1922
The PDF might take a minute to load. Or, click to download PDF.
If your Web browser is not configured to display PDF files. No worries, just click here to download the PDF file.
No comments:
Post a Comment