The Second Book of Modern Verse Part 43

He rendered his own work so as to bring out all of its rhythmic possibilities and became quite as well known for his interpretations of his work as for the work itself. Much of his verse is social in appeal, but he was at his best in poems of more imaginative beauty, such as "The Chinese Nightingale".

Lowell, Amy. [1874-1925] (5) Born in Brookline, Ma.s.s., Feb. 9, 1874. Educated at private schools.

Author of "A Dome of Many-Coloured Gla.s.s", 1912; "Sword Blades and Poppy Seed", 1914; "Men, Women and Ghosts", 1916; "Can Grande's Castle", 1918; "Pictures of the Floating World", 1919.

Editor of the three successive collections of "Some Imagist Poets", 1915, '16, and '17, containing the early work of the "Imagist School"

of which Miss Lowell became the leader. This movement, of which we have spoken in the notes upon the work of "H. D." and John Gould Fletcher, originated in England, the idea having been first conceived by a young poet named T. E. Hulme, but developed and put forth by Ezra Pound in an article called "Don'ts by an Imagist", which appeared in 'Poetry; A Magazine of Verse'. As previously stated, a small group of poets gathered about Mr. Pound, experimenting along the technical lines suggested, and a cult of "Imagism" was formed, whose first group-expression was in the little volume, "Des Imagistes", published in New York in April, 1914. Miss Lowell did not come actively into the movement until after that time, but once she had entered it, she became its leader, and it was chiefly through her effort in America that the movement attained so much prominence and so influenced the trend of poetry for the years immediately succeeding.

Miss Lowell many times, in admirable articles, stated the principles upon which Imagism is based, notably in the Preface to "Some Imagist Poets"

and in the Preface to the second series, in 1916. She also elaborated it much more fully in her volume, "Tendencies in Modern American Poetry", 1917, in the articles pertaining to the work of "H. D." and John Gould Fletcher.

In her own creative work, however, Miss Lowell did most to establish the possibilities of the Imagistic idea and of its modes of presentation, and opened up many interesting avenues of poetic form. Her volume, "Can Grande's Castle", is devoted to work in the medium which she styled "Polyphonic Prose" and contains some of her finest work, particularly "The Bronze Horses".

[Amy Lowell won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1926 (posthumous) for "What's O'Clock". -- A. L., 1998.]

Masters, Edgar Lee. [1869-1950] (2) Born Garnett, Kan., Aug. 23, 1869. Educated at Knox College, Ill.

He studied law in his father's office and was admitted to the bar in 1891.

Married Helen M. Jenkins, of Chicago, in 1898. Mr. Masters wrote several volumes of verse and several poetic dramas, which are now out of print, before he found himself in the "Spoon River Anthology", published first in 'Reedy's Mirror' and in book form in 1915. This volume, written in free verse and containing about two hundred brief sketches, or posthumous confessions, shows Mr. Masters to be a psychologist of the keenest penetration, a satirist and humorist, laying bare unsparingly the springs of human weakness, but seeing with an equal insight humanity's finer side. "Spoon River Anthology", which had perhaps a wider recognition than that of any volume of verse of the period, was followed by "Songs and Satires", 1916; "The Great Valley", 1916; "Toward the Gulf", 1917; and "Starved Rock", 1920.

Middleton, Scudder. [1888-1959] (2) Born in New York City, Sept. 9, 1888. Educated at Columbia University.

Was connected for several years with the publishing firm of The Macmillan Company. Mr. Middleton is the author of "Streets and Faces", 1917, and "The New Day", 1919.

Millay, Edna St. Vincent. [1892-1950] (3) Born at Camden, Maine, and educated at Va.s.sar College.

Before entering college, however, when she was but nineteen years of age, she wrote the poem, "Renascence", entered in the prize contest of "The Lyric Year", a poem showing a remarkable imagination in so young a writer. After leaving college Miss Millay came to New York and became a.s.sociated with the Provincetown Players for whom she wrote several one-act plays in which she herself acted the leading part.

Her plays have also been produced by other companies and have attracted the attention of critics, particularly the poetic drama, "Aria da Capo", 1920.

Miss Millay is one of our most gifted young poets. Her volumes of verse to date are: "Renascence, and Other Poems", 1917, and "Poems", 1920.

[Edna St. Vincent Millay won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1923 for "The Ballad of the Harp-Weaver", &c. -- A. L., 1998.]

Monroe, Harriet. [1860-1936] (2) Born in Chicago. Graduated at Visitation Academy, Georgetown, D.C., March, 1891. Miss Monroe was chosen to write the ode for the dedication of the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1892.

After some years in literary work, chiefly as an art critic, Miss Monroe founded, in October of 1912, 'Poetry; A Magazine of Verse', an organ which has done much to stimulate interest in poetry and also its production, since it has become the recognized vehicle for the work of the newer school. The first "Imagist" poems appeared in its pages and it was the first to print the work of Carl Sandburg and other well-known poets of the poetic revival.

Miss Monroe is the author of "Valeria and Other Poems", 1892; "The Pa.s.sing Show, Modern Plays in Verse", 1903; "You and I", 1914, and was co-editor, with Alice Corbin Henderson, of "The New Poetry", an anthology, 1917.

Morgan, Angela. [1873/74-1957] (2) Born in Washington, D.C. Educated by private tutors, the public schools, and by special University courses. Miss Morgan entered the journalistic field while still a young girl and did very brilliant work on papers of Chicago and New York. Her work covered all phases of life from those of society to the slums. She visited police courts, jails, and all places where humanity suffers and struggles, and it was no doubt her early work in the newspaper field that gave to her later work, both in poetry and fiction, its strong social bias. Probably no poet of the present time responds more keenly to the social needs of the period, nor has a keener sense of the opportunity for service. Miss Morgan was one of the delegates to the First International Congress of Women, at The Hague, during the first year of the war, and has appeared frequently in readings from her own work. Her volumes of verse are "The Hour Has Struck", 1914; "Utterance and Other Poems", 1916; "Forward, March", 1918; and "Hail, Man", 1919. She has also published a volume of stories under the t.i.tle "The Imprisoned Splendor".

Morton, David. [1886-1957] (3) Born in Elkton, Ky., Feb. 21, 1886. Educated in the public schools of Louisville, Ky., and at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn., where he graduated with the degree of B.S. in 1909. Mr. Morton first took up journalism and was reporter and a.s.sociate editor of various Southern periodicals up to 1915, when he entered the teaching profession as Professor of English at the Boys' High School of Louisville.

He is now teacher of History and English at the Morristown High School, Morristown, N.J. In 1919 Mr. Morton took the first prize, of $150, for the best poem read at the Poetry Society of America during the current year, and in 1920 he was awarded a $500 prize for one of three book ma.n.u.scripts considered the best submitted to the contest of "The Lyric Society". The volume, "Ships in Harbor, and Other Poems", will be published in the autumn of 1920.

Mr. Morton is one of the finest sonneteers of this period and a poet of rare and authentic gifts.

Neihardt, John G. [1881-1973] (1) Born at Sharpsburg, Ill., Jan. 8, 1881. Removed in his early boyhood to Bancroft, Neb., his present home. He has made a special study of the pioneer life of the West and also of the Indian life, having spent some time among the Omaha Indians. His work has great virility and sweep and he has a fine gift of narrative.

His first volume, "A Bundle of Myrrh", 1908, showed unmistakably that a new poet had appeared in the West. This was followed by the lyric collections, "Man-Song", 1909; "The Stranger at the Gate", 1912; and "The Quest", 1916. Mr. Neihardt then turned his attention to the writing of a trilogy of narrative poems, each devoted to some character identified with the pioneer life of the Far West.

"The Song of Hugh Gla.s.s", 1915, and "The Song of Three Friends", 1919, have thus far been published. The material used by Mr. Neihardt is not only romantic and picturesque, but valuable in the historical sense and he is able to shape it with dramatic imagination.

Norton, Grace Fallow. [1876-?] (1) Born at Northfield, Minn., Oct. 29, 1876. Author of "Little Gray Songs from St. Joseph's", 1912; "The Sister of the Wind", 1914; "Roads", 1915; and "What is Your Legion?", 1916.

O'Brien, Edward Joseph. [1890-1941] (2) Born in Boston, Ma.s.s., Dec. 10, 1890. Educated at Boston College and Harvard University. Author of "White Fountains", 1917; "The Forgotten Threshold", 1918. Editor of "The Masque of Poets", 1918.

Since 1915 Mr. O'Brien has been editing a collection of "The Best Short Stories" of the current season.

O'Conor, Norreys Jephson. [1885-1958] (2) Born in New York City, Dec. 31, 1885. Was educated at Harvard University where he took the degrees of A.B. and A.M., making a special study of the Gaelic language and literature in which he has also done some valuable research work. Having, through his own Celtic descent, a particular interest in Ireland and its literature, and having spent a part of his time in that country, Mr. O'Conor's poetry naturally turns upon Celtic themes which have inspired some excellent dramatic as well as lyric work from his pen. His volumes in their order are: "Celtic Memories", 1914; "Beside the Blackwater", 1915; "The Fairy Bride: A Play in Three Acts", 1916; and "Songs of the Celtic Past", 1918.

O'Hara, John Myers. [1870-1944] (3) Born at Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Educated at Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill. Was admitted to the bar and practiced law in Chicago for twelve years, when he gave up this profession and came to New York to become a stock-broker. Although Mr. O'Hara has followed this exacting occupation for the past ten years, it has not prevented him from writing and publishing several volumes of poetry, largely cla.s.sic in theme, and handled with an adequate and beautiful art.

"The Poems of Sappho", 1907, built upon the authentic fragments, are acknowledged to be among the finest in English literature.

Mr. O'Hara's other volumes comprise: "Songs of the Open", 1909; "Pagan Sonnets", 1910; "The Ebon Muse", 1912; "Manhattan", 1915; and "Threnodies", 1918.

O Sheel, Shaemas. [1886-1954] (1)

His two volumes of verse are: "The Blossomy Bough", 1911, and "The Light Feet of Goats", 1915. Mr. O Sheel is a true poet, writing in the Celtic tradition.

Oppenheim, James. [1882-1932] (3) Born at St. Paul, Minn., May 24, 1882, but a resident of New York City, where he has spent most of his life. He was educated at Columbia University and first entered sociological work, becoming a.s.sistant head worker at the Hudson Guild Settlement, 1901-03. Married Lucy Seckel, of New York, June, 1905. Was teacher and acting superintendent of the Hebrew Technical School for Girls, New York, 1905-07, when he left to engage entirely in literary work. Mr. Oppenheim is a well-known short-story writer and novelist as well as poet, but we will confine ourselves to listing his work in poetry, which has in itself been voluminous. Since his first collection, "Monday Morning and Other Poems", 1909, his work has been written chiefly in free verse, or in "polyphonic poetry", to use his own term, usually in sweeping rhythms more akin to those of Whitman than to the later free-verse writers. In spirit, too, he has the Whitman mood, or rather, he is absorbed by the same great social and democratic aspects of life.

Few poets see life so broadly as Mr. Oppenheim or look as deeply below its surface; his work, however, is beset technically by the danger that attends a poet who works in a semi-prose medium, and the art is not always commensurate with the thought.

Mr. Oppenheim's other volumes of verse are: "Pioneers", a poetic play, 1910; "Songs for the New Age", 1914; "War and Laughter", 1916; "The Book of Self", 1917; "The Solitary", 1919.

Peabody, Josephine Preston (Mrs. Lionel Marks). [1874-1922] (3) Born in New York City. Educated at the Girls' Latin School of Boston and at Radcliffe College. Miss Peabody was Instructor of English at Wellesley College from 1901 to 1903. Her volumes in their order are: "The Wayfarers", 1898; "Fortune and Men's Eyes", 1900; "Marlowe, a Drama", 1901; "The Singing Leaves", 1903; "The Wings", 1905; "The Piper", a drama, awarded the Stratford-on-Avon Prize of $1500 in 1910; "The Singing Man", 1911; "The Wolf of Gubbio", a drama, 1913; and "The Harvest Moon", 1916. Miss Peabody's charming play, "The Piper", first produced at Stratford, was played also in New York at the Century Theater, having a successful run, and was revived in the winter of 1920 by the Drama League. Miss Peabody was a poet of a very delicate and individual art, whether in lyric or drama.

Percy, William Alexander. [1885-1942] (1) Born in Greenville, Miss., May 14, 1885. Was prepared for college chiefly by a Roman Catholic priest; went to the University of the South, at Sewanee, Tenn., where he received his B.A. degree.

The next year he spent abroad, and the following entered Harvard Law School, where he took the degree of LL.B.

He is now in the active practice of law in Greenville, Miss.

His first book of poems, "Sappho in Levkas and Other Poems", was published in 1915, and his second, "In April Once", in 1920.

During the World War, Mr. Percy had active service in France, having the rank of Captain.

Piper, Edwin Ford. [1871-1939] (1) Born at Auburn, Neb., Feb. 8, 1871. Spent his early youth on a farm near his native town and in various parts of the cattle country of the State.

Took his degree of A.B. from the University of Nebraska in 1897 and of A.M. in 1900, and later took graduate-student work at Harvard.

Mr. Piper was Instructor in English at the University of Nebraska from 1899 to 1903, when he went to Harvard, and returned to the University in the same capacity for the two years following, when he entered upon the same position at the University of Iowa, where he still remains.

He has published but one collection of verse, "Barbed Wire", a volume dealing with life in the West, though he appears frequently in the magazines.

Rice, Cale Young. [1872-1943] (4) Born at Dixon, Ky., Dec. 7, 1872. Graduated from c.u.mberland University in 1893 and from Harvard University in 1895, where he remained to take the degree of A.M. in 1896. He is the author of many fine poetic dramas, some of which have had successful stage presentation, and of several volumes of lyric poetry. In poetic drama his best-known works are "Charles di Tocca", 1903; "David", 1904; "Yolanda of Cyprus", 1905; "A Night in Avignon", 1907; "The Immortal Lure", 1911; and "Porzia", 1913.

Of late Mr. Rice has confined himself chiefly to lyric poetry, covering a wide range of subjects, since he has traveled extensively and finds inspiration for his work in the beauty of far countries and their philosophies, as well as in the more familiar life about him.

His best-known lyric collections are: "Nirvana Days", 1908; "Many G.o.ds", 1910; "Far Quests", 1912; "At the World's Heart", 1914; "Earth and New Earth", 1916; "Trails Sunward", 1917; "Wraiths and Realities", 1918; "Songs to A. H. R.", 1918; and "Shadowy Thresholds", 1919. With the exception of the last five t.i.tles, Mr. Rice's work, both in lyric and drama, may be found in his two volumes of "Collected Plays and Poems", 1915.

Robinson, Corinne Roosevelt. [1861-1933] (2) Born in New York City in 1861. Educated by private teachers, and at Miss Comstock's School in New York, supplemented by a short period of study in Dresden. Married Douglas Robinson, 1882.

Mrs. Robinson, who is a sister to Col. Theodore Roosevelt, has always taken an active part in philanthropic and political affairs, and, since her brother's death, has given much of her time to speaking upon his life and work, in the interest of Americanization.

Mrs. Robinson has written several volumes of verse: "The Call of Brotherhood", 1912; "One Woman to Another", 1914; and "Service and Sacrifice", 1919. All show the fine ideals and gracious spirit of their writer.

Robinson, Edwin Arlington. [1869-1935] (3) Born at Head Tide, Maine, Dec. 22, 1869. Educated at Harvard University.

Mr. Robinson is a psychological poet of great subtlety; his poems are usually studies of types and he has given us a remarkable series of portraits. He is recognized as one of the finest and most distinguished poets of our time.

His successive volumes are: "Children of the Night", 1897; "Captain Craig", 1902; "The Town Down the River", 1910; "The Man Against the Sky", 1916; "Merlin", 1917; and "Launcelot", 1920.

The last-named volume was awarded a prize of five hundred dollars, given by The Lyric Society for the best book ma.n.u.script offered to it in 1919.

In addition to his work in poetry, Mr. Robinson has written two prose plays, "Van Zorn", and "The Porcupine".

[Edwin Arlington Robinson won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1922 for "Collected Poems", in 1925 for "The Man Who Died Twice", and in 1928 for "Tristram". -- A. L., 1998.]

Sandburg, Carl. [1878-1967] (4) Born at Galesburg, Ill., Jan. 6, 1878. Educated at Lombard College, Galesburg. Married Lillian Steichen, of Milwaukee, 1908.

Mr. Sandburg served several years as secretary to the Mayor of Milwaukee, then went to Chicago where he became a.s.sociate editor of 'System', leaving this magazine to become an editorial writer upon the 'Chicago Daily News'. He first came into prominence by a poem on "Chicago" published in 'Poetry', of that city, and was awarded the Levinson Prize for this poem, in 1914.

The following year he published a collection of his verse under the t.i.tle of "Chicago Poems", and in 1918 appeared his second volume, "Corn Huskers". This was one of two volumes to receive the Columbia University award of $500 for the best book of verse of the year.

Mr. Sandburg belongs to the newer movement in poetry, using the 'vers-libre' forms. He is a writer of rugged power, interested in the social aspects of modern life, but a poet who is also sensitive to beauty and a frequent master of the magic phrase.

[Carl Sandburg won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1919 for "Corn Huskers", and in 1951 for his "Complete Poems". (Same as the Columbia University Prize listed above.) -- A. L., 1998.]

Schauffler, Robert Haven. [1879-1964] (2) Born at Brun, Austria, though of American parentage, on April 8, 1879.

He studied at Northwestern University, but took his degree of A.B.

from Princeton, in 1902, and afterwards spent a year in study at the University of Berlin. Mr. Schauffler was a musician before he took up literature and was a pupil of several famous masters of the 'cello.

He has written upon musical subjects, notably in his volume, "The Musical Amateur", and in his delightful account of his musical experiences in the Army, "Fiddler's Luck", 1920.

He is also the author of several books of travel, such as "Romantic Germany", and "Romantic America", but it was with his poem, "Sc.u.m o' the Earth", published in one of the magazines in 1912, that he first came into prominence as a poet. As its name implies, it is a poem taking up the question of America's debt to the immigrant, and looking at it with the vision of the poet. This poem furnished the t.i.tle to Mr. Schauffler's collection of verse, published in 1912.

Seeger, Alan. [1888-1916] (1) Born in New York City, June 22, 1888. He spent his childhood upon Staten Island, where he was constantly in sight of the great steamships of all nations moving in and out of New York Harbor -- the gateway to the Western Hemisphere. Returning to Manhattan, he was sent to the Horace Mann School, but while still a lad, the family removed to Mexico where the most impressionable years of his boyhood were spent. The influence of the romantic Southern life is shown in his earliest poetry. Upon his return to America, several years later, he was prepared for college at the Hackley School at Tarrytown, N.Y., and entered Harvard in 1906, where he remained to graduate in 1910. Then followed a period of indecision as to his future work, a period of two years spent in New York, seeking some adequate outlet for the gifts which he seemed unable to bring to a practical issue.

Finally, his family decided to give him a period in Paris, and he had been living there, with excursions to other parts of the Old World, for nearly two years when the Great War broke out and furnished him with the incentive to high adventure which his spirit craved.

He enlisted at once and was enrolled in the Foreign Legion which was soon sent to the front. For two years he played not only a gallant part as a soldier, but, as his letters and journal show, he developed personal qualities of the n.o.blest. Indeed no dedication made by youth to the ideal of the war was more complete than his.

During his period with the Legion he wrote the poems by which he will be remembered, "Champagne, 1914", "Ode to the American Volunteers Fallen for France", and his exquisite "Rendezvous", published in this collection. All are beautiful and all have the exaltation which marked the soldier's spirit in the earlier years of the war.