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,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
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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