MODERN VERSE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 31, 6 February 1937, Page 1 (Supplement)

MODERN VERSE.

THE LATEST "OXFORD." MR. W. B. YEATS SURPRISES.

(By CYRANO.)

If you were suddenly asked what three poets you thought would head the list in space in a collection of English verse since the death of Tennyson, what names would you put forward? Kipiiug, Muse field, Xewbolt, Bridges, Hardy? Would

Edith Sitwell, Herbert Read and Walter James Turner? Probably you would, and you might even say: "Edith Sitwell I know (though I can't read her), but who are Herbert Read and XV. J. Turner?" These three occupy pride of •place in number of pages in Mr. W. B. Yeats' "Oxford Book of Modern Verse," the latest, and for some time to come (presumably) the last of these famous anthologies of English verse issued by the leading publishing house in the English-speaking world." Fortunate is he (or she) who owns a full set of these books bound in blue and gold and delightfully printed. There is a. double significance, therefore, in the space given- to Edith Sitwell, Herbert Eead and W. J. Turner. This is a book issued by a press of the highest reputation, and Mr. Yeats, who has made the selection, is a great poet with an international reputation, who would, I think, be acclaimed by a majority of competent judges the foremost living poet writing ill English.

A Poet's Progress. That Jlr. Yeats should give such prominence to these three writers'— eighteen pages to Mi~e Sitwell, seventeen to Herbert Read and sixteen to W. J. Turner, followed by Lady Gerald Wellesley (bracketed with Laurence liinyon with lifted —'.alls for comment. It shows that time and the world move, that new poets with new methods and messages swim into our ken ("change" might be i more correct word) and challenge their elders. An older generation brought up on Tennyson and Kipling may be surprised and even bewildered by this proportion. Masefield is given only six pages. Hardy three, Bridges seven and Kipling (for a reason to be stated later) three. The ligures are t-till more curious when we consider llr. Yeats' own history. As a youngish man liu mixed with the decadents of the 'nineties, the Ernest Dowsou group, who worshipped art (which they mistook for life) in febrile though sometimes beautiful verse. Despair came to them n* dingy dawns filtered into stale rooms of pleasure— ii thin and bitter sadness whose edge was generally blunted by artificiality. Mr. Yeats, however, was too bi" a man to be captured by *o feeble a school. He turned back to Ireland, and exercised his geniius upon her stories, landscape ami coul. Xo poet of his time has served pure beauty more consistently

and successfully. Xow, an old man, lie welcomes the radicals and rebels of to-day—the Sitwells and Elicke and Audene. The mornlns comes to consciousness Of flllllt StlllO Klllolls Of lIPIT From till! sawdust-trampled street. With nil its miiilily feet Unit press To early coffee stands. With the other masquerades That time resumes. One thinks of nil the hands That are raising dingy shades In a thousand furnished rooms. Is this poetry? Mr. Yents thinks it is, and Mr. Yeats wrote, "I will arise and go now, and go to InnisfiU," and

Who dreamed Hint beauty pnxsee like a I"or these red lips, with nil their mournful pride. .Mournful that no new wonder may liefule. Troy passed away In one hldli funeral gli'ani, And Usnu's children died.

It is significant, however, that Mr. Yeats, in the twelve pages he allots to himself, does not include either of these poems. Much of his choice is taken from his later works, and a good deal of it is political. Without wishing to question his polities, many will wisli that he had chosen rather differently. Making an Anthology. This is a much-discussed hook. Mr. Y"eats' eminence invests it with a peculiar interest; l.e has not only selected the poems, but has written a preface of nearly -10 pages. There is something in the criticism that an editor who was not a poet might have made :i more representative collection. The two must popular English anthologies—the first volume of the "Golden Treasury" and Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch's "Oxford Book of English Verse"—were edited by men who were not distinguished poets, though Palgrave had a reputation as a poet in his own time. The very genius of a great poet may be incompatible with the breadth of judgment required for such a task. Anthology-making is a delightful occupation, but it is more delightful when you are pleasing yourself alone than when you keep an eye on the public. Alice Meynell. a true poet. deliberately omitted "Gray's Elegy" from her collection, on the ground that it was not imaginative enough, but could an anthology claim to be really representative if it did not contain tlint poem ? The problems of the anthologist are troublesome enough. The greatest is what to leave out. You may think there has not been mu-i. poetry since Tennyson, but Mr. Yeats says that "England has had more go-' poets sinee lilud to the present dav than during any period of the same length since the early seventeenth century." Here he presents no fewer than ninety-five. You may sav there has been no Tennyson, no Browning, Byron. There have been, however, a !:irce number of centime noets. Consider Kinlinir. Hardv. Bridges, Maseh'e'cl. Yeats, de la Mare. Davies. A'ice Meynell. Francis Thompson. "A.E.." Chesterton, nod A. E. Housman; do these —and there are many others—not worthily carry on the magnificent nageant of English poetry? My short 'ist does not include anv of what mav be cal'cd the later challengers—T. P. ICliot. whose influence on younsrer poets I.us been wide nml deep: the Sitwells: Hay T.ewis and W. TT. Amlen. Here we ■•ct at times a despair that may be cmpared with the despair of the 'nineties, but it is not maudlin.

Copyright Difficulties. To choose from one's contemporaries is obviously more difficult than to make a collection from the past. l'algrave's lirst volume pleaded the world better than his second, in which he had to pass judgment on the work of his own time. liven Tennyson champions do not agree with Palgrave's presentation of the poet who was his close friend ami adviser. Then, when the anthologist has made his choice he is faced with the difficulty of copyright. Palgrave could not get permission to reprint Swinburne, who therefore remained less accessible to the public. The high price of .Swinburne's volumes was long a grievance. .Swinburne wan a republican, and therefore might have been expected to favour cheap books, but he was also well-to-do and probably never knew what it was not to be able to buy a book he wanted. Mr. Yeats has been denied any specimen of the late Sir William Watson's work. (Watson complained bitterly about the public's neglect of him; his sales dwindled to next to nothing.) The reason why only two of Kipling's poems appear in this book is that the publishers declined to pay for more. Mr. Kipling must have made more money out of poetry than any writer of his time: could not his publishers or executors afford to let Mr. Yeats have a free hand in choosing from him? The result is a representation which, considering Kipling's genius, influence anil popularity, is absurd.

Old and New. The volume contains some old favourites, such as "Drake's Drum." "The Hound of Heaven." "What is this life if. full of care, we have no time to stand and stare.' , "The Rolling English Road" and ''The Bull," but its greater service may be introduction of newer writers to "a wider public. Part of the justification of anthologies is that they spread poetry round. They are cheap— compared with what has t'o be paid for the poets separately—and they are portable. The new "'Oxford." like the older volumes, will go into many a suitcase and haversack.

Finally it may be noted that the oversea British communities arc represented. W. J. Turner was apparently horn and certainly educated in Australia, and Roy Campbell, the brilliant and aggressive South African, is represented by four poems. William Plomer has lived in Smith Africa." There is no X'ew Zealander. Perhaps when the next "Oxford Modern" appears there will be. •••The nxfnnl Bnnk »t Mmlern \>rso. ISSVJ-WS.V clinsnn hr VT. B. Yoats (Oxford University Tress).'