as is often charged. It can be as vigorous as the unrhymed "voluntaries" of Henley or as delicately chiselled as the firm precision of H. D.'s lines. We find it in various tones and textures: rough-hewn and massive as in the gnarled solidity of Carl Sandburg, brilliantly glazed as in the enamelled pictures of Amy Lowell, biblical as in the sonorous strophes of James Oppenheim. But though vers libre has been the subject of much curious debate, it is only one feature of the surface resemblance as well as the wide differences of modern poets on both sides of the Atlantic. A sweeping inclusiveness distinguishes their dissimilar verse; they employ old forms and new departures with equal skill. There is this outstanding_difference between latter-day American and British poets. Broadly speaking, modern British verse is smoother, more matured and, molded by centuries of literature, richer in associations. American poetry, no longer imitative and colonial, is sharper, more vigorously experimental, provocative with youth and youth's occasional -and natural-crudities. Where the English product is formulated, precise and (in spite of a few fluctuations) true to its past, the American expression is far more varied and (being the reflection of partly indigenous and largely unassimilated ideas, temperaments and races) is characteristically uncoördinated. English poetry may be compared to a broad and luxuriating river with a series of tributaries contributing to the now thinning, now widening channel. American poetry might be described as a sudden rush of unconnected mountain torrents, valley streams and city sluices. Instead of one placidly moving body, there are a dozen rushing currents. It is as if here, in the last twenty years, submerged springs had burst through stubborn ground. For this reason, I have included in both sections, not only the often quoted poems by those poets who are accepted everywhere as outstanding figures, but examples of lesser known singers who are also representative of their age. The same spirit has impelled me to reprint a liberal portion of that species which stands midway between light verse and authentic poetry. The Eugene Fields, the J. W. Rileys, may not occupy the same high plane as the Masefields and Frosts, but there are few people who will not be attracted to them and thus be drawn on to deeper notes and larger themes. In the dialect verses of Paul Laurence Dunbar and T. A. Daly there is dignity beneath the humor; their very broken syllables reveal how America has become a meltingpot in a poetic as well as an ethnic sense. With the realization that this gathering is not so much a complete summary as an introduction to modern poetry, it is hoped that the collection will move the reader to a closer inspection of the poets included. The purpose of an anthology must always be to rouse and stimulate an interest rather than to satisfy a curiosity. Such, at least, is the hope and aim of one editor. New York City. LOUIS UNTERMEYER Note to the Revised Edition: Since the foregoing was written in 1922, little has happened in either America or England to change most of the conclusions contained in the preceding paragraphs. There has been, however, a rather definite return to rhyme and regular rhythms, to what may be called "formal poetry," and this revised edition reflects the waning of vers libre and the swing back to the more traditional patterns. Some twentyfour poets and one hundred poems have been added to the original volume, the biographical and bibliographical data have been brought sharply up-to-date, and the notes have been considerably amplified. As before, no one "school" or tendency has been emphasized at the expense of any other. It is not a group of poets but poetry itself which this volume tries to reveal. A special recognition of understanding and assistance must be made to Olive Ely Hart of the South Philadelphia High School for Girls, several of Miss Hart's original questions and Suggestions for Study being incorporated in this revised edition. L. U. |