T

HIS sixth revision of Modern American Poetry continues the plan as well as the direction of the preceding editions. It goes even further than the fifth edition in placing its emphasis on the more important poets by enlarging their groups of poems and emphasizing their contribution to the period. The notes which introduce each group of poems and the amplified preface have been brought sharply up to date. The volume begins with Walt Whitman, with whom modern American poetry may be said to have begun, but it includes a representation of the latest and most experimental poets of the last decade.

It is impossible, in any but a book of encyclopedic proportions, to include all the interesting figures of the times. Though this collection indicates the range of recent American poetry, many poets have been omitted from these pages. The editor regrets the cruel stringency of space, and apologizes to those (many of them his friends) whom it was impossible to include. The table of contents must speak for itself. Some of the poets included have been hailed as pioneers; some have provoked controversy and have changed the direction of contemporary art; some have maintained their quiet utterance with no regard whatsoever to warring movements. But each has established his individuality by a unique command of his medium and a strongly pronounced personal idiom.

It has already been implied that one of the aims of this collection is to express not only the national range but the diversity of recent American poetry. Yet, although the compilation is fairly inclusive, it is (as the title page indicates) critical. No group or "school" has been favored at the expense of another; the pages presume to record the best in convention as well as the most provocative in revolt. The object, in short, is to present a panorama in which outstanding figures assume logical prominence, but in which the valuable lesser personalities are not lost.

It is here that debate begins and choice is likely to be arbitrary. Never before have so many poets distinguished themselves in America; never before has even the lesser verse been on such a level of competence. In the quarter of a century following the first appearance of Poetry: A Magazine of Verse in 1912 more than one hundred magazines have devoted themselves exclusively to the printing and appraisal of verse. The rapid multiplication of magazines barely suggests the amount of verse produced in the forty-eight states. Every major city has its Poetry Society feverishly competing for prizes; every county has its local laureate. A rough calculation indicates that, in the twenty years covering the "renascence" of American poetry, no fewer than four thousand poets had volumes of their poetry offered for public sale. This figure does not include

privately printed books or pamphlets which could not be catalogued. But, though an array of four thousand poets in any one period may be sufficiently imposing, this number gives no idea of the armies of writers who have whipped up their emotions, girded up their lines, and battled for the crucial adjective. It is safe to say that for every poet fortunate enough to emerge from the struggle with a volume or two to his credit, there were ten (the number is probably nearer fifty) who were not so victorious and had to content themselves with publication in magazines, in trade journals, and in the poetry corner of the local newspaper. Forty thousand poets then. But wait. It is fair to assume that there must be still ten times as many who have chewed pencils, crumpled paper, cursed the inadequacy of the Rhyming Dictionary, and, somehow, got their lines to fit without the final gratification of seeing them in printer's type. Four hundred thousand-a thorough search would probably double the figure— four hundred thousand poets plying their difficult trade with desperate hope and small chance of reward.

Selection of the fifteen or twenty "leading" poets is not so difficult. Almost everyone will agree on the poets whose appearance is imperative in a collection. of this type. It is when one goes further and attempts to suggest the flux and fecundity of the period, or presumes to indicate the shape of things to come, that differences of opinion are sure to arise. Controversy and even enmity are likely to follow. In the end every editor is driven back upon that mixture of preference, prejudice, and intuition known as personal taste—and it is only rarely that he can escape the limitations imposed by his temperament and training.

That inescapable personal factor explains the method of editing as well as the manner of selection. That a poem has appeared in various anthologies is no proof that it is a good poem. Nor (in spite of those opposed to anthologies) is such publication anything against it. A good poem remains a good poem, no matter how often it is reprinted. On the other hand, it should be admitted that where there has been a choice between a much-quoted poem and one which has not been handed on from one anthologist to another, the editor has-where both poems seemed equally worthy-favored the less familiar example.

Although humorous verse demands an omnibus of its own, its presence must be felt in any collection which presumes to reflect a period of growth. If the full extent of American humorous verse, from wit to burlesque, cannot be shown in this compilation, its changing form is suggested here by the light verse of Bret Harte, Eugene Field, T. A. Daly, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Guy Wetmore Carryl, Franklin P. Adams, Ogden Nash, and (immodest addendum) the editor's own parodies.

One thing remains to be said. Although the notes as well as the number of poems selected make the editor's preference obvious, it should be added that he has attempted to make each poet's group rounded and representative. To accomplish this, not only the early but the most recent writing of the contemporaries appears here-some of it for the first time between covers. Wherever possible, the selections as well as the authors have been chronologically arranged; as a rule the earlier work is placed at the beginning of each group, and the later work follows in approximately the order in which it was written. The

editor is greatly indebted to most of the living poets, not only for invaluable data, but for their collaborative assistance; many of the following pages embody their choice of their own poems as well as the editor's preferences.

Finally, the compiler is grateful to the many publishers who have, in every instance, displayed a generosity and coöperation without which the successive editions of this volume would not have been possible. This indebtedness is alphabetically acknowledged to the following firms and agents, holders of the copyrights:

THE ALCESTIS PRESS-for selections from Ideas of Order by Wallace Stevens, The Mediterranean and Other Poems by Allen Tate, and Thirty-Six Poems by Robert Penn Warren.

D. APPLETON-CENTURY COMPANY, INC.-for selections from Going-to-the-Sun and Going-to-the-Stars by Vachel Lindsay, Merchants from Cathay by William Rose Benét, War and Laughter by James Oppenheim, and Poems of People by Edgar Lee Masters.

BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY-for selections from the Biographical Edition of The Complete Works of James Whitcomb Riley, copyright 1913, reprinted by special permission of the publishers.

A. AND C. BONI-for selections from The Janitor's Boy and Other Poems and The Singing Crow by Nathalia Crane, Tulips and Chimneys by E. E. Cummings, For Eager Lovers by Genevieve Taggard, and Now the Sky by Mark Van Doren. BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY-for the poem by Emily Dickinson beginning "Because that you are going" in the Galatea Collection, first published in The Life and Mind of Emily Dickinson by Genevieve Taggard (Knopf).

BRANDT & BRANDT-for poems by E. E. Cummings and Edna St. Vincent Millay. CURTIS BROWN, LTD.-for two poems from The Bad Parent's Garden of Verse by Ogden Nash.

JONATHAN CAPE AND HARRISON SMITH, INC.-for selections from Blue Juniata by Malcolm Cowley.

COWARD-MCCANN, INC.-for selections from Compass Rose by Elizabeth J. Coatsworth and Venus Invisible by Nathalia Crane.

JOHN DAY COMPANY-for selections from High Falcon by Léonie Adams.
DECISION-for a poem by Marya Zaturenska.

THE DIAL PRESS-for selections from Observations by Marianne Moore.

DODD, MEAD & COMPANY-for selections from Golden Fleece by William Rose Benét, Lyrics of Lowly Life (Copyright 1896) and from Lyrics of Love and Laughter (Copyright 1903) by Paul Laurence Dunbar, by permission of the publishers, Dodd, Mead & Company, Inc.

DOUBLEDAY, DORAN & COMPANY-for selections from Man Possessed and Moons of Grandeur by William Rose Benét, In Other Words and Tobogganing on Parnassus by Franklin P. Adams, The Man with the Hoe and Lincoln and Other Poems by Edwin Markham, Trinc, by H. Phelps Putnam, Tiger Joy and John Brown's Body by Stephen Vincent Benét, and Leaves of Grass (Inclusive and Authorized Edition) by Walt Whitman.

E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY-for selections from Cry of Time by Hazel Hall.
FABER AND FABER, LTD. (London)-for "Journey of the Magi," "Animula," and "A

Song for Simeon" from The Ariel Poems by T. S. Eliot, with the permission of T. S. Eliot.

FANTASY-for a poem by Wallace Stevens.

FARRAR & RINEHART, INC.-for selections from Public Speech by Archibald MacLeish, copyright 1936, The Fall of the City: A Radio Play by Archibald MacLeish, copyright 1937, and A Draft of XXX Cantos by Ezra Pound, reprinted by permission of Farrar & Rinehart, Inc.

FOUR SEAS COMPANY-for selections from The Charnel Rose, The Jig of Forslin, and The House of Dust by Conrad Aiken, and Sour Grapes by William Carlos Williams.

HARCOURT, BRACE AND COMPANY, INC.-for selections from A Miscellany of American Poetry: 1920, American Poetry: A Miscellany: 1922, American Poetry: A Miscellany: 1925-1927, The Book of the American Negro, Collected Poems by E. E. Cummings, copyright, 1923, 1925, 1931, 1935, 1938, by E. E. Cummings, and copyright, 1926, by Boni & Liveright, Canzoni and Carmina by T. A. Daly, Behind Dark Spaces by Melville Cane, Poems: 1909-1925 by T. S. Eliot and Collected Poems of T. S. Eliot, copyright, 1936, Poems: 1930-1940 by Horace Gregory, copyright, 1941, Land of the Free by Archibald MacLeish, copyright, 1938, The Noise That Time Makes and Six Sides to a Man by Merrill Moore, Smoke and Steel by Carl Sandburg, Slabs of the Sunburnt West by Carl Sandburg, Good Morning, America by Carl Sandburg, The People, Yes by Carl Sandburg, copyright, 1936, Food and Drink and Selected Poems and Parodies by Louis Untermeyer, copyright, 1935, by permission of Harcourt, Brace and Company, Inc. HARPER & BROTHERS-for selections from Sunrise Trumpets and Cyclops' Eye by Joseph Auslander, Fables for the Frivolous by Guy Wetmore Carryl, Color and Copper Sun by Countee Cullen, Renascence (Copyright 1917) by Edna St. Vincent Millay, A Few Figs from Thistles (Copyright 1922) by Edna St. Vincent Millay, The Buck in the Snow (Copyright 1928) by Edna St. Vincent Millay, Fatal Interview (Copyright 1931) by Edna St. Vincent Millay, and Wine from These Grapes (Copyright 1934) by Edna St. Vincent Millay. HARVARD ADVOCATE-for "Asides on the Oboe" by Wallace Stevens.

HARR WAGNER PUBLISHING COMPANY-for selections from The Complete Poetical
Works of Joaquin Miller,

HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY-for selections from A Boy's Will by Robert Frost,
North of Boston by Robert Frost, Mountain Interval by Robert Frost, New Hamp
shire by Robert Frost, West-Running Brook by Robert Frost, A Further Range
by Robert Frost, The Collected Poems of Robert Frost, copyright 1936 and 1939,
Chicago Poems and Cornhuskers by Carl Sandburg, and Selected Poems by
George Sterling.
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY-for selections from The Complete Works of Bret
Harte, The Shoes that Danced by Anna Hempstead Branch, Grimm Tales Made
Gay by Guy Wetmore Carryl, Sea Garden by H. D., The Tall Men by Donald
Davidson, Preludes and Symphonies by John Gould Fletcher, A Roadside Harp
and Happy Endings by Louise Imogen Guiney, Ballads by John Hay, Sword
Blades and Poppy Seed by Amy Lowell, Men, Women and Ghosts by Amy
Lowell, Pictures of the Floating World by Amy Lowell, What's O'Clock by Amy
Lowell, Streets in the Moon by Archibald MacLeish, New Found Land by Archi-

bald MacLeish, Poems: 1924-1933 by Archibald MacLeish, Panic by Archibald MacLeish, Poems and Poetic Dramas by William Vaughn Moody, Poems by Edward Rowland Sill, and the quotations from Some Imagist Poets—all of which are used by permission of, and by special arrangement with, Houghton Mifflin Company, the authorized publishers.

Alfred A. KNOPF, INC.-for selections from Punch: The Immortal Liar by Conrad Aiken, Advice by Maxwell Bodenheim, A Canticle of Pan by Witter Bynner, Verse by Adelaide Crapsey, A Letter to Robert Frost by Robert Hillyer, Pattern of a Day by Robert Hillyer, The Collected Verse of Robert Hillyer, Fine Clothes to the Jew by Langston Hughes, Songs for the New Age, Golden Bird, and The Sea by James Oppenheim, Lustra by Ezra Pound, Chills and Fever and Two Gentlemen in Bonds by John Crowe Ransom, Harmonium by Wallace Stevens, Travelling Standing Still by Genevieve Taggard, Nets to Catch the Wind by Elinor Wylie, Black Armour by Elinor Wylie, Trivial Breath by Elinor Wylie, Angels and Earthly Creatures by Elinor Wylie, and Collected Poems (Copyright 1932) by Elinor Wylie-all of which are reprinted by permission of, and by special arrangement with, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., authorized publishers. LITTLE, BROWN & COMPANY-for selections from The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson, Further Poems by Emily Dickinson, and The Poems of Emily Dickinson: Centenary Edition, edited by Martha Dickinson Bianchi and Alfred Leete Hampson, and from The Face is Familiar by Ogden Nash-all of which are reprinted by permission of Little, Brown & Company, authorized publishers. THE LIVERIGHT CORPORATION-for selections from White Buildings by Hart Crane, The Bridge by Hart Crane, and Collected Poems by Hart Crane, Collected Poems by H. D., Personae by Ezra Pound, and Priapus and the Pool by Conrad Aiken. LONGMANS, Green and Company-for selections from Stone Dust by Frank Ernest Hill.

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY-for selections from The Chinese Nightingale by Vachel Lindsay, Collected Poems by Vachel Lindsay, Spoon River Anthology and Songs and Satires by Edgar Lee Masters, The Man Against the Sky by Edwin Arlington Robinson, Collected Poems by Edwin Arlington Robinson, and Dionysus in Doubt by Edwin Arlington Robinson, Rivers to the Sea, Love Songs, Flame and Shadow and Dark of the Moon by Sara Teasdale, Hesperides by Ridgely Torrence, Steep Ascent by Jean Starr Untermeyer, Cold Morning Sky by Marya Zaturenska, and The Listening Landscape by Marya Zaturenska.

EDWIN MARKHAM AND VIRGIL MARKHAM-for selections from The Man with the Hoe and Other Poems, Poems, The Shoes of Happiness and Other Poems, and New Poems, published by Doubleday, Doran & Company and copyright by the late Edwin Markham, with whose permission, by special arrangement, the poems are reprinted. EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY and her agents, Brandt & Brandt-for permission to reprint her poems which are copyright as follows: "God's World," and "Renascence," from Renascence, published by Harper & Brothers, copyright 1917, 1924, by Edna St. Vincent Millay. "The Pear Tree," copyright 1919 by Edna St. Vincent Millay. "Elegy," "The Poet and His Book," "Spring," "Passer Mortuus Est," and "Wild Swans," from Second April, published by Harper & Brothers,