The County Series of Contemporary Poetry No. IV
CONTEMPORARY HAMPSHIRE POETRY No. IV.
Edited by S. Fowler Wright
Published by Fowler Wright Ltd., London.
MDCCCCXXVIII
- "I wander'd lonely as a cloud
- That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
- A host, of golden daffodils;
- Fluttering and dancing in the breeze."
PREFACE.
This volume is one of a series of County Anthologies of Contemporary Poetry, issued in connection with the work of the Empire Poetry League, but the contributions included are not in any way confined to members of that organisation, though it may naturally be the case that the majority of the authors concerned are among its supporters.
They are not all equally expert or experienced in craftsmanship. One - and not the least worthy - of the contributors to the first volume of the series, Warwickshire Poetry, is a girl of fourteen. Many others are of established reputation in contemporary literature. All are united in a common artistic purpose, and in the pursuit of ideality in an age which is tragic in some aspects of its materialism.
So compiled, this series is not intended to be comprehensive, though it is representative, and especially of the younger writers, from among whom must come the makers of English poetry for the next half-century.
But this claim of 'representative' will almost certainly be challenged by the 'modernist' fraternity, and their supporters.
The very impartiality with which I have edited these and earlier, anthologies has caused me to be accused of hostility to vers libre, and more broadly to experimental as opposed to traditional forms of poetic expression. But the fact is, as anyone may discover who will make sufficient enquiry, that the bulk of such work is negligible, outside the very narrow circle of the clique which cultivates it in a form which it would be outside the purpose of this introduction to consider in detail
Where it exists, and wherever its content is anything more than despicable, I have never failed to recognise it, as in the highly experimental work of Mr. Olaf Stapledon in Poets of Merseyside, or the very 'modern' art of Mrs. Dawson Scott, which found its first recognition in the pages of Poetry, and afterwards in the first series of Voices on the Wind, - to the preface of which volume I recommend any who are sufficiently interested, where these aspects of modern poetry is discussed more fully.
So compiled, what the poetry of to-day actually is, rather than that which any of us would wish it to be, this series can hardly fail to be of some permanent interest and importance.
It may be said that the poems vary greatly in quality. That is true. I have endeavoured to judge broadly and tolerantly, choosing different poems for different and some times opposite excellencies. Only, and always, requiring that they shall be sincere in expression, and in the worship however humble, of that beauty which all art is born to serve.
Those of us who are neither deaf to the music of words; nor ignorant of the technique of poetic construction, may yet realise that as 'the life is more than meat, and the body than raiment,' so poetry is degraded from its highest function if it be first regarded as an esoteric art producing curiously-patterned words as subjects for the admiration of the scholar, or the dissecting knife of the critic, rather than a vitalising force, which should be welcomed in any garb, however lowly.
It has been suggested that each volume of this series should (contain some biographical or other data of the authors concerned, but that would be outside the purpose of the work in which we are interested, which is to extend the love and cultivation of English poetry, rather than the knowledge of those who write it. Besides, the revelation of individuality is contained more certainly in the work of any artist than in the records of his ancestry or occupation. Soldiers and mechanics, peers and butchers, bankers and labourers, men and women of wealth and poverty, of toil and leisure, literate and illiterate, united in the love and practice of poetry, have contributed to make these pages representative of the interests and aspirations of their time and race.
Poetry is the one art in which the British race is supreme, and by which it will be remembered when its material power may be no more than a legend of history. It is so widely read, and so readily appreciated, because we are a nation of poets. For among poets must be the only audience that poetry can ever win.
Gathered from such diverse sources, there are yet certain broad deviations observable in the poetry of different counties, which are brought into unusual relief by this method of publication. They are rather variations in subject and outlook, than in any more technical qualities. Where they occur, they throw occasional unexpected lights upon the influences of environment, and the racial characteristics of the localities in which they originate. But it may be largely accidental that some counties appear to be much richer than others in their poetic output. Experience has shown that the response is universal, wherever an intelligent effort be made to organise the lovers of poetry even in areas which have appeared the most hopeless and apathetic at the first enquiry.
In conclusion, a word of thanks is due to the many lovers of literature, editors, librarians, and members of the E.P.L., in all parts of the country through whose generous enthusiasm and unselfish help the production of these books has been made possible. They are too numerous for individual mention, and it would be invidious to make a selection among the names of those who have shared in a common enterprise.
S. FOWLER WRIGHT,
(Editor of Poetry and the Play).
CONTENTS
HELEN M. ATKINS
Over the Hedge
For Services Rendered
J.A. BRAMLEY
A Winter Invitation
Rondel
The Return
Storm
Youth and Travel
An Invitation
J.G. Le BRETON
To the God of the Promise
Sonnet
Light
A Beech Hanger in Autumn
VIVIAN BRETT-SMITH
April Folly
France, 1919
NORAH CHARLWOOD
Timothy Cranberry
CARESSE CROSBY
A Sonnet
Sonnet of Thanks
Cross Roads
Chloe
Firelight
N'aie Pas Peur
Snow and Flame
Leda
Footsteps Out of Pisa
Time
Constance Martel
Castille
I Wonder
Over The Wall
KATHLEEN FOLEY
Transmission
Questionings
In Bondage
Wealth
Summer-Time on Hengistbury Head - A Memory-Picture
Chimney-Stacks
IRIS AMY IBBOTSON
Island Silhouettes
Summer Months
The Newcomer
The Rev. W.J. MAY
Fires
LAMBERT METHVEN
Ellingham
ALFRED H. OWEN
The Athenaeum Club
ALFRED PRESTON
To Sirius
Youth and I
To My Bedroom Fire
To a Borrowed Book
WALTER TAPLEY RESTALL
Love's Ideal
Questions
To Dame Clara Butt (after a long absence)
EDITH J. RESTALL
Sonnet
N.A.D REYNOLDS
The Strange Meeting
Gratitude
Harvest
The Journey's End
L. SCOTT STEVENS
An April Dawn
To One Who Sings Not Yet
A.T. SHEARMAN
Morning Radiance
'Tis May, 'Tis May
The Lost Poem
S.J.J. WISE
Diatoms
E. WOOD
His Future
Sleep and His Brother
Lilies, mixed, and Roses
H.G. WOOLDRIDGE
Isle of Wight
Sunset: New Forest
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