Part 3 (1/2)
Have a paper pointing out this fact. Read from their poems and compare them with those of the poets of the younger set who took the same themes.
Laurence Binyon, an Englishman like Phillips, has written ”Persephone”
and ”Porphyrin” with the cla.s.sic theme, and ”Tintagel” with the romantic. Rhys Carpenter, one of the youngest American writers, has ”The Tragedy of Etarre,” founded on the Arthurian legend. Helen Coale Crewe has written ”aegean Echoes,” and Martha J. Kidder ”aeonian Echoes,” both full of beauty and promise. Read from these.
A concluding paper might inquire, What is it in these two themes which has always attracted the poets?
IV--POEMS OF PROTEST
Under this t.i.tle may be found the work of many of the young poets of to-day. They show sympathy with the workingman, revolt against tyranny and tenderness for suffering. They champion labor and demand the betterment of conditions. This is the ”new note,” as it is called, and is of immense importance. Clubs should put special study upon it, following it out in the different poems.
John Masefield, of England, one of the most conspicuous writers of our time, voices the protest strongly. His style is often that of the monologue or narrative, and while sometimes it is merely rhymed prose, at other times it is vigorous, picturesque and vivid. Read ”The Widow of Bye Street,” and ”The Everlasting Mercy.” Note also his ”Daffodil Fields,” which is quite different from these and full of peculiar beauty.
Wilfred Wilson Gibson is another poet with a pa.s.sion for justice. His dramatic monologues are terse, simple, direct. Read from ”Daily Bread,”
and ”Fires.”
A third poet, Robert Haven Schauffler, takes also the poor for his subject. His ”Sc.u.m o' the Earth” is a touching picture. Charles Edward Russell in his ”Songs of Democracy” strikes the same note; read his ”Ess.e.x Street.” Edwin Markham, though not among the younger poets, had much the same theme in his earlier ”Man with the Hoe,” which may be recalled.
William Watson, after writing for years finished, contemplative verse, suddenly, in direct contrast to his other work, wrote ”The Year of Shame,” amazing England with his demand for justice to Armenia and Greece. Read ”How Weary Are Our Hearts.” Close this part of the study with brief readings from John Galsworthy's ”Moods, Songs and Doggerels,”
which present, again, sympathy for the oppressed.
V--PHILOSOPHICAL AND MYSTICAL POEMS
Among the many who write this serious and uplifting form of verse may be named George Santayana, who, in his sonnets, and ”The Hermit of Carmel,”
studies the philosophy of life. He has no eye for nature, as most poets have, but always takes up the abstract theme.
Alice Meynell, an Englishwoman, has several volumes of finished verse with the mark of literary distinction. The devout spirit is noticeable in her work. Read ”In Early Spring,” and ”Regrets.”
Anna Hempstead Branch, author of many beautiful short poems and several brief dramas, is strongest in ”Nimrod,” a long philosophical poem. In this, as in her other writing, the sense of the mystical is marked.
”Soldiers of the Light,” by Helen Gray Cone, is remarkable for its artistic, subtle yet uplifting feeling. Louise Imogen Guiney, who has been writing for many years, has some recent verse that is of even more than its usual spirituality; read ”The White Sail,” and ”Tryste Noel.”
Read also from the poems of Rosamund Marriott Watson, Edwin Arlington Robinson, and Agnes Lee, as well as the lovely verse of Alice Brown.
VI--LYRICS AND POEMS OF NATURE
This is one of the divisions which covers an immense field. Among the many writers who might be chosen for study is Alfred Noyes, the young Englishman who is so often compared with Tennyson. He writes spontaneous, optimistic verse. He loves suns.h.i.+ne and green fields and children; he is sometimes dramatic, sometimes playful, but always graceful. ”The Barrel Organ” and ”Forty Singing Seamen” are among his finest lyrics, but ”The Flower of Old j.a.pan” is also noteworthy. Study the other work of Noyes, especially his drama, ”Drake.”
John Vance Cheney has many lovely lyrics, as have William Vaughan Moody, Bliss Carman, Clinton Scollard, Lizette Reese, Edith Thomas, and a long list of others. Read several of each from the books of Miss Rittenhouse.
Madison Cawein writes of nature always with the same touch of freshness.
He idealizes everyday things, fields, gra.s.s, and flowers; he has what has been called ”the romantic love of out-of-doors.” Sometimes he strikes a more vigorous tone, as in his ”Prayer for Old Age.” Read this, and ”The Wild Iris.”
Arthur Upson has a style peculiar for its dreamy beauty and exquisite finish. His ”Octaves in an Oxford Garden” shows him at his best.