The Younger American PoetsRittenhouse, Jessie Belle
History
The Younger American Poets
Rittenhouse, Jessie Belle
American poetry -- History and criticism; Poets, American
The work of Mr. Edwin Markham, the poet of democracy, whose fraternal
songs embody many of the latter-day ideals, and that of John B. Tabb,
the lapidary of modern verse, who cuts with infinite care his delicate
cameos of thought, were also beyond the chronological scheme of the
volume. Nor of those who fell within its scope could a selection be
made that would not seem to some invidious, since it must chance among
so great a number that many would be omitted who should, with equal
right, have been included; it returns, therefore, to the earlier
statement, that one must confine himself to a representative group,
with whose work he chance to be most familiar, and upon which he has,
therefore, the truer claim to speak.
It seemed, also, that the volume would have more value if it gave to a
smaller number such a study as would differentiate and define their
work, rather than to a larger group the passing comment of a few
paragraphs. It was a great regret, however, that circumstances
incident to the copyrights prevented me from including the admirable
work of William Vaughn Moody, which reveals by its breadth,
penetration, and purpose, the thinker and not the dreamer. Indeed, Mr.
Moody’s work, in its vitality of touch, fine imagination, and
spiritual idealism, proves not only the creative poet but one to whom
the nobler offices of Art have been entrusted, and the critic given to
inquiring why the former times were better than these may well keep
his eye upon the work of Mr. Moody.
It was also a regret that those inexorable arbiters, space and time,
deprived me of the privilege of including the strongly individual work
of Helen Gray Cone; the artistic, thoughtful verse of Anna Hempstead
Branch; the sincere and sympathetic song of Virginia Woodward Cloud;
the spiritual verse of Lilian Whiting, with its interpretation of the
higher imports; the heartening, characteristic notes of Theodosia
Garrison; and the recently issued poems of Josephine Dodge Daskam,
which prove beyond peradventure that the Muses, too, were at her
christening,—indeed, the “Songs of Iseult Deserted,” which form a
group in her volume, are lyrics worthy of any hand.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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