The Little Book of Modern Verse: A Selection from the Work of Contemporaneous American Poets
General
The Little Book of Modern Verse: A Selection from the Work of Contemporaneous American Poets
American poetry
Cather, Willa Sibert. [1873-1947] (1)
Born at Winchester, Virginia, December 7, 1875 [sic]. During her childhood
the family moved to Nebraska, and in 1895 Miss Cather was graduated from
the University of that State. Coming East to engage in newspaper work,
she became associated with the staff of the "Pittsburgh Daily Leader",
where she remained from 1897 to 1901. Soon after, she became
one of the editors of "McClure's Magazine", doing important feature articles
until 1912. Miss Cather is now writing fiction, and has published
three novels, "Alexander's Bridge", "O Pioneers!" and "The Song of the Lark".
In poetry, she has done but one small volume, "April Twilight", 1903,
but several poems from this collection seem likely to make for themselves
a permanent place.
Cawein, Madison. [1865-1914] (3)
Born at Louisville, Kentucky, March 23, 1865. Educated in the public schools
of that city. He began writing very early and published his first
book of verse, "Blooms of the Berry", 1887, when but twenty-two years of age.
From that time until his death, December 7, 1915 [sic],
he published many volumes of poetry inspired chiefly by the theme of nature.
As most of these volumes are out of print, it is unnecessary to list them all,
but among the more important may be cited: "Intimations of the Beautiful",
1894; "Undertones", 1896; "The Garden of Dreams", 1896;
"Myth and Romance", 1899; "Weeds by the Wall", 1901;
"Kentucky Poems", with an Introduction by Edmund Gosse, London, 1902;
"A Voice on the Wind", 1902; "The Vale of Tempe", 1905;
"Complete Poetical Works", 5 volumes, 1907; "New Poems", London, 1909;
"Poems -- A Selection from the Complete Work", 1911;
"The Poet, the Fool, and the Fairies", 1912; "Minions of the Moon", 1913;
"The Poet and Nature", 1914; and "The Cup of Comus", posthumous publication,
1915. Mr. Cawein was distinctly the creator of his own field.
From the publication of his first little volume, "Blooms of the Berry",
he had made himself the intimate, almost the mystic, comrade of nature.
He had an ecstatic sense of the visible world. Beauty was his religion,
and he spent his life learning the ways and moods of nature and declaring them
in poetry rich in imagination. He had the naturalist's eagerness for truth,
and one might explore the Kentucky woods and fields
with a volume of his poetry as a handbook and find the least regarded flower
minutely celebrated. In his most affluent fancy his eye never left the fact,
and the accuracy of his observation gives his nature work a background
which adds greatly to its value.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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