The Advance of English Poetry in the Twentieth CenturyPhelps, William Lyon
History
The Advance of English Poetry in the Twentieth Century
Phelps, William Lyon
American poetry -- 20th century -- History and criticism; English poetry -- 20th century -- History and criticism
The remarkably impressive and beautiful poem by Alan Seeger which
bears the above title naturally attracted universal attention. I had
supposed the idea originated with Stephen Crane, who, in his novel
_The Red Badge of Courage_, Chapter IX, has the following
paragraph:
At last they saw him stop and stand motionless. Hastening up,
they perceived that his face wore an expression telling that
he had at last found the place for which he had struggled. His
spare figure was erect; his bloody hands were quietly at his
side. He was waiting with patience for something that he had
come to meet. He was at the rendezvous. They paused and
stood, expectant.
But I am informed both by Professor F. N. Robinson of Harvard and by
Mr. Norreys Jephson O'Conor that the probable source of the title of
the poem is Irish. Professor Robinson writes me, "The Irish poem that
probably suggested to Seeger the title of his _Rendezvous_ is the
_Reicne Fothaid Canainne_ (Song of Fothad Canainne), published by
Kuno Meyer in his _Fianaigecht_ (Dublin, 1910), pp. 1-21. Seeger
read the piece at one of my Celtic Conferences, and was much impressed
by it. He got from it only his title and the fundamental figure of a
_rendezvous_ with Death, the Irish poem being wholly different
from his in general purport. Fothad Canainne makes a tryst with the
wife of Ailill Flann, but is slain in battle by Ailill on the day
before the night set for the meeting. Then the spirit of Fothad (or,
according to one version, his severed head) sings the _reicne_ to
the woman and declares (st. 3): 'It is blindness for one who makes a
tryst to set aside the tryst with death.'"
Miss Amy Lowell, however, believes that Seeger got the idea from a
French poet. Wherever he got it, I believe that he made it his own,
for he used it supremely well, and it will always be associated with
him.
At Harvard, Alan Seeger took the small and special course in Irish,
and showed enthusiasm for this branch of study. Wishing to find out
something about his undergraduate career, I wrote to a member of the
Faculty, and received the following reply: "Many persons found him
almost morbidly indifferent and unresponsive, and he seldom showed the
full measure of his powers.... I grew to have a strong liking for him
personally as well as a respect for his intellectual power. But I
should never have expected him to show the robustness of either mind
or body which we now know him to have possessed. He was frail and
sickly in appearance, and seemed to have a temperament in keeping with
his physique. It took a strong impulse to bring him out and disclose
his real capacity."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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