Yet the great body of the work of Shakespeare was of the unconventional type. It differed, of course, from the free verse of today, yet it was a forerunner of what is now being produced. Shakespeare contributed largely toward giving blank verse a lasting good name. He ventured to pay little attention to rhyme in an age when England was a nest of singing birds, and most of them were singing in rhymes and stanzas. He preserved his rhythm, it is true, but our modern free verse does that also. It has a still older pedigree than Shakespeare. It appears in the earliest beginnings of the poetry of the English and of still more ancient peoples. The literature of the Hindus and Semites is full of it. From the earliest snatches of song recorded in the sacred writings of the Hebrews, the Bible has a wealth of poetry which suggests the modern form. Moses, David, and Solomon all used it. The Magnificat of Mary and the Nunc Dimittis of Simeon are both worthy of an honorable place in a modern magazine of free verse. Rhythmic prose is, then, quite an ancient literary institution. It appears in two distinct grades and types. One is the simple, childlike, elemental form which marks the early stages of the life of a people. The other is the more polished form which represents the later period of culture. The first is found in the early lore of most races, savage or semi-civilized. The American Indian had an abundance of it. The beginnings of the poetry of what are now the most civilized races also include a great deal of it. It represents that time in the life of a people when human feelings burst spontaneously into song. In such an age practically everyone is a singer, though not everyone can fashion fancy rhymes and stanzas. Of the second form, we have abundant examples in our large and growing store of fine poetical work. We have simply swung back toward the freer forms which gave opportunity for the expression of the feelings of our earlier forefathers. We may have done so because we had feelings to express that seemed to demand such forms. We may have done so simply for the sake of variety. At any rate, we have done so. This fact does not argue that any violence has been done to the quality of our poetic output. The present movement has simply changed the favored poetic form, for the time being at least. It may be that we have gone backward in some other things, but there is little to indicate that we have done so in relation to our poetry. The general run of American poetry today is of a very high order. Generally speaking, poetic art in America stands today at its highest level thus far.