Chapter 1

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THE RIVERSIDE LITERATURE SERIES

A TREASURY OF WAR POETRY

BRITISH AND AMERICAN POEMS OF THE WORLD WAR 1914-1917

Edited, With Introduction And Notes, By GEORGE HERBERT CLARKE Professor of English in the University of Tennessee

CONTENTS

I. AMERICA

RUDYARD KIPLING: The Choice

HENRY VAN DYKE: "Liberty Enlightening the World"

ROBERT BRIDGES: To the United States of America

VACHEL LINDSAY: Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight

JEANNE ROBERT FOSTER: The "William P. Frye"

II. ENGLAND AND AMERICA

FLORENCE T. HOLT: England and America

LIEUTENANT CHARLES LANGBRIDGE MORGAN: To America

HELEN GRAY CONE: A Chant of Love for England

HARDWICKE DRUMMOND RAWNSLEY: At St. Paul's: April 20, 1917

ROWLAND THIRLMERE: Jimmy Doane

ALFRED NOYES: Princeton, May, 1917

III. ENGLAND

SIR HENRY NEWBOLT: The Vigil

RUDYARD KIPLING: "For All we Have and Are"

JOHN GALSWORTHY: England to Free Men

SIR OWEN SEAMAN: _Pro Patria_

GEORGE HERBERT CLARKE: Lines Written in Surrey, 1917

IV. FRANCE

CECIL CHESTERTON: _France_

HENRY VAN DYKE: The Name of France

CHARLOTTE HOLMES CRAWFORD: _Vive la France!_

THEODOSIA GARRISON: The Soul of Jeanne d'Arc

EDGAR LEE MASTERS: O Glorious France

HERBERT JONES: To France

FLORENCE EARLE COATES: Place de la Concorde

CANON AND MAJOR FREDERICK GEORGE SCOTT: To France

GRACE ELLERY CHANNING: _Qui Vive?_

V. BELGIUM

LAURENCE BINYON: To the Belgians

EDITH WHARTON: Belgium

EDEN PHILLPOTTS: To Belgium

SIR OWEN SEAMAN: To Belgium in Exile

GILBERT KEITH CHESTERTON: The Wife of Flanders

VI. RUSSIA AND AMERICA

JOHN GALSWORTHY: Russia--America

ROBERT UNDERWOOD JOHNSON: To Russia New and Free

VII. ITALY

CLINTON SCOLLARD: Italy in Arms

GEORGE EDWARD WOODBERRY: On the Italian Front, MCMXVI

VIII. AUSTRALIA

ARCHIBALD T. STRONG: Australia to England

IX. CANADA

MARJORIE L. C. PICKTHALL: Canada to England

WILFRED CAMPBELL: Langemarck at Ypres

WILL H. OGILVIE: Canadians

X. LIÈGE

STEPHEN PHILLIPS: The Kaiser and Belgium

DANA BURNET: The Battle of Liège

XI. VERDUN

LAURENCE BINYON: Men of Verdun

EDEN PHILLPOTTS: Verdun

PATRICK R. CHALMERS: Guns of Verdun

XII. OXFORD

WINIFRED M. LETTS: The Spires of Oxford

W. SNOW: Oxford in War-Time

TERTIUS VAN DYKE: Oxford Revisited in War-Time

XIII. REFLECTIONS

GEORGE EDWARD WOODBERRY: Sonnets Written in the Fall of 1914

SIR HENRY NEWBOLT: The War Films

ALFRED NOYES: The Searchlights

PERCY MACKAYE: Christmas: 1915

THOMAS HARDY: "Men who March Away"

JOHN DRINKWATER: We Willed it Not

LIEUTENANT-COLONEL SIR RONALD ROSS: The Death of Peace

FLORENCE EARLE COATES: In War-Time

LAURENCE BINYON: The Anvil

WALTER DE LA MARE: The Fool Rings his Bells

JOHN FINLEY: The Road to Dieppe

W. MACNEILE DIXON: To Fellow Travellers in Greece

AUSTIN DOBSON: "When there is Peace"

ALFRED NOYES: A Prayer in Time of War

THOMAS HARDY: Then and Now

BARRY PAIN: The Kaiser and God

ROBERT GRANT: The Superman

EVERARD OWEN: Three Hills

XIV. INCIDENTS AND ASPECTS

JOHN FREEMAN: The Return

GRACE FALLOW NORTON: The Mobilization in Brittany

SIR HENRY NEWBOLT: The Toy Band

SIR OWEN SEAMAN: Thomas of the Light Heart

MAURICE HEWLETT: In the Trenches

SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE: The Guards Came Through

WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS: The Passengers of a Retarded Submersible

LAURENCE BUTTON: Edith Cavell

HERBERT KAUFMAN: The Hell-Gate of Soissons

GEORGE HERBERT CLARKE: The Virgin of Albert

WILFRID WILSON GIBSON: Retreat

SIR HENRY NEWBOLT: A Letter from the Front

GRACE HAZARD CONKLING: Rheims Cathedral--1914

XV. POETS MILITANT

ALAN SEEGER: I Have a Rendezvous with Death

LIEUTENANT RUPERT BROOKE: The Soldier

CAPTAIN CHARLES HAMILTON SORLEY: _Expectans Expectavi_

LIEUTENANT HERBERT ASQUITH: The Volunteer

CAPTAIN JULIAN GRENFELL: Into Battle

JAMES NORMAN HALL: The Cricketers of Flanders

CAPTAIN CHARLES HAMILTON SORLEY: "All the Hills and Vales Along"

CAPTAIN JAMES H. KNIGHT-ADKIN: No Man's Land

ALAN SEEGER: Champagne, 1914-15

CAPTAIN GILBERT FRANKAU: Headquarters

LIEUTENANT E. WYNDHAM TENNANT: Home Thoughts from Laventie

LIEUTENANT ROBERT ERNEST VERNÈDE: A Petition

ROBERT NICHOLS: Fulfilment

The Day's March

LIEUTENANT FREDERIC MANNING: The Sign

The Trenches

LIEUTENANT HENRY WILLIAM HUTCHINSON: Sonnets

CAPTAIN J. E. STEWART: The Messines Road

PRIVATE A. N. FIELD: The Challenge of the Guns

LIEUTENANT GEOFFREY HOWARD: The Beach Road by the Wood

SERGEANT JOSEPH LEE: German Prisoners

SERGEANT LESLIE COULSON: "--But a Short Time to Live"

LIEUTENANT W. N. HODGSON: Before Action

LIEUTENANT DYNELEY HUSSEY: Courage

LIEUTENANT A. VICTOR RATCLIFFE: Optimism

MAJOR SYDNEY OSWALD: The Battlefield

CAPTAIN JAMES H. KNIGHT-ADKIN: "_On Les Aura!_"

CORPORAL ALEXANDER ROBERTSON: To an Old Lady Seen at a Guest-House for Soldiers

LIEUTENANT GILBERT WATERHOUSE: The Casualty Clearing Station

LANCE-CORPORAL MALCOLM HEMPHREY: Hills of Home

XVI. AUXILIARIES

JOHN FINLEY: The Red Cross Spirit Speaks

WINIFRED M. LETTS: Chaplain to the Forces

EDEN PHILLPOTTS: Song of the Red Cross

LAURENCE BINYON: The Healers

THOMAS L. MARSON: The Red Cross Nurses

XVII. KEEPING THE SEAS

ALFRED NOYES: Kilmeny

RUDYARD KIPLING: The Mine-Sweepers

HENRY VAN DYKE: _Mare Liberum_

LIEUTENANT PAUL BEWSHER: The Dawn Patrol

REGINALD MCINTOSH CLEVELAND: Destroyers off Jutland

C. FOX SMITH: British Merchant Service

XVIII. THE WOUNDED

WINIFRED M. LETTS: To a Soldier in Hospital

WILFRID WILSON GIBSON: Between the Lines

ROBERT HAVEN SCHAUFFLER: The White Comrade

ROBERT W. SERVICE: Fleurette

ROBERT FROST: Not to Keep

XIX. THE FALLEN

LIEUTENANT RUPERT BROOKE: The Dead

JOHN MASEFIELD: The Island of Skyros

LAURENCE BINYON: For the Fallen

CAPTAIN CHARLES HAMILTON SORLEY: Two Sonnets

WALTER DE LA MARE: "How Sleep the Brave!"

EDWARD VERRALL LUCAS: The Debt

CANON AND MAJOR FREDERICK GEORGE SCOTT: _Requiescant_

LIEUTENANT ROBERT ERNEST VERNÈDE: To our Fallen

KATHARINE TYNAN: The Old Soldier

ROBERT BRIDGES: Lord Kitchener

JOHN HELSTON: Kitchener

LIEUTENANT HERBERT ASQUITH: The Fallen Subaltern

F. W. BOURDILLON: The Debt Unpayable

WILFRID WILSON GIBSON: The Messages

G. ROSTREVOR HAMILTON: A Cross in Flanders

HERMANN HAGEDORN: Resurrection

OSCAR C. A. CHILD: To a Hero

MORAY DALTON: Rupert Brooke (In Memoriam)

FRANCIS BICKLEY: The Players

CHARLES ALEXANDER RICHMOND: A Song

XX. WOMEN AND WAR

JOSEPHINE PRESTON PEABODY: Harvest Moon

JOSEPHINE PRESTON PEABODY: Harvest Moon: 1916

ADA TYRRELL: My Son

KATHARINE TYNAN: To the Others

GRACE FALLOW NORTON: The Journey

MARGARET PETERSON: A Mother's Dedication

EDEN PHILLPOTTS: To a Mother

SARA TEASDALE: Spring In War-Time

OCCASIONAL NOTES

INDEXES

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The Editor desires to express his cordial appreciation of the assistance rendered him in his undertaking by the officials of the British Museum (Mr. F.D. Sladen, in particular); Professor W. Macneile Dixon, of the University of Glasgow; Professor Kemp Smith, of Princeton University; Miss Esther C. Johnson, of Needham, Massachusetts; and Mr. Francis Bickley, of London. He wishes also to acknowledge the courtesies generously extended by the following authors, periodicals, and publishers in granting permission for the use of the poems indicated, rights in which are in each case reserved by the owner of the copyright:--

Mr. Francis Bickley and the _Westminster Gazette_:--"The Players."

Mr. F.W. Bourdillon and the _Spectator_:--"The Debt Unpayable."

Dr. Robert Bridges and the London _Times_:--"Lord Kitchener," and "To the United States of America."

Mr. Dana Burnet and the New York _Evening Sun_:--"The Battle of Liège."

Mr. Wilfred Campbell and the Ottawa _Evening Journal_:--"Langemarck at Ypres."

Mr. Patrick R. Chalmers and _Punch_:--"Guns of Verdun."

Mr. Cecil Chesterton and _The New Witness_:--"France."

Mr. Oscar C.A. Child and _Harper's Magazine_:--"To a Hero."

Mr. Reginald McIntosh Cleveland and the _New York Times_:--"Destroyers off Jutland."

Miss Charlotte Holmes Crawford and _Scribner's Magazine_:--"_Vive la France!_"

Mr. Moray Dalton and the _Spectator_:--"Rupert Brooke."

Lord Desborough and the London _Times_:--"Into Battle," by the late Captain Julian Grenfell.

Professor W. Macneile Dixon and the London _Times_:--"To Fellow Travellers in Greece,"

Mr. Austin, Dobson and the _Spectator_:--"'When There Is Peace;'"

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and the London _Times_:--"The Guards Came Through."

Mr. John Finley and the _Atlantic Monthly_:--"The Road to Dieppe"; Mr. Finley, the American Red Cross, and the _Red Cross Magazine_:--"The Red Cross Spirit Speaks."

Mr. John Freeman and the _Westminster Gazette_:--"The Return."

Mr. Robert Frost and the _Yale Review_:--"Not to Keep."

Mr. John Galsworthy and the _Westminster Gazette_:--"England to Free Men"; Mr. Galsworthy and the London _Chronicle_:--"Russia--America."

Mrs. Theodosia Garrison and _Scribner's Magazine_:--"The Soul of Jeanne d'Arc."

Lady Glenconner and the London _Times_:--"Home Thoughts from Laventie," by the late Lieutenant E. Wyndham Tennant.

Mr. Robert Grant and the _Nation_ (New York):--"The Superman."

Mr. Hermann Hagedorn and the _Century Magazine_:--"Resurrection."

Mr. James Norman Hall and the _Spectator_:--"The Cricketers of Flanders."

Mr. Thomas Hardy and the London _Times_:--"Men Who March Away," and "Then and Now."

Mr. John Helston and the _English Review_:--"Kitchener."

Mr. Maurice Hewlett:--"In the Trenches," from _Sing-Songs of the War_ (The Poetry Bookshop).

Dr. A. E. Hillard:--"The Dawn Patrol," by Lieutenant Paul Bewsher.

Mrs. Katharine Tynan Hinkson:--"To the Others" and "The Old Soldier."

Mrs. Florence T. Holt and the _Atlantic Monthly_:--"England and America."

Mr. William Dean Howells and the _North American Review_:--"The Passengers of a Retarded Submersible."

Lady Hutchinson:--"Sonnets," by the late Lieutenant Henry William Hutchinson.

Mr. Robert Underwood Johnson:--"To Russia New and Free," from _Poems of War and Peace_, published by the author.

Mr. Rudyard Kipling:--"The Choice"; "'For All we Have and Are'"; and "The Mine-Sweepers." (Copyright, 1914, 1915, 1917, by Rudyard Kipling.)

Captain James H. Knight-Adkin and the _Spectator_;--"No Man's Land" and "_On Les Aura!_"

Sergeant Joseph Lee and the _Spectator_:--"German Prisoners."

Mr. E. V. Lucas and the _Sphere_:--"The Debt."

Mr. Walter de la Mare and the London _Times_:--"'How Sleep the Brave!'"; Mr. de la Mare and the _Westminster Gazette_:--"The Fool Rings his Bells."

Mr. Edward Marsh, literary executor of the late Rupert Brooke:--"The Soldier" and "The Dead."

Mr. Thomas L. Masson:--"The Red Cross Nurses," from the _Red Cross Magazine_.

Lieutenant Charles Langbridge Morgan and the _Westminster Gazette_:--"To America."

Sir Henry Newbolt:--"The Vigil"; "The War Films"; "The Toy Band," and "A Letter from the Front."

Mr. Alfred Noyes:--"Princeton, May, 1917"; "The Searchlights" (London _Times_), "A Prayer in Time of War" (London _Daily Mail_), and "Kilmeny."

Mr. Will H. Ogilvie:--"Canadians."

Mr. Barry Pain and the London _Times_:--"The Kaiser and God."

Miss Marjorie Pickthall and the London _Times_:--"Canada to England."

Canon H.D. Dawnsley and the _Westminster Gazette_:--"At St. Paul's, April 20, 1917."

Dr. Charles Alexander Richmond:--"A Song."

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Ronald Ross and the _Poetry Review_:--"The Death of Peace."

Mr. Robert Haven Schauffler:--"The White Comrade."

Mr. W. Snow and the _Spectator_:--"Oxford in War-Time."

Mrs. Grace Ellery Channing Stetson and the New York _Tribune_:--"_Qui Vive_?"

Mr. Rowland Thirlmere and the _Poetry Review_:--"Jimmy Doane."

Mrs. Ada Turrell and the _Saturday Review_:--"My Son."

Dr. Henry van Dyke and the London _Times_:--"Liberty Enlightening the World," and "_Mare Liberum_"; Dr. van Dyke and the _Art World_: "The Name of France."

Mr. Tertius van Dyke and the _Spectator_:--"Oxford Revisited in War-Time."

Mrs. Edith Wharton:--"Belgium," from _King Albert's Book_ (Hearst's International Library Company).

Mr. George Edward Woodberry and the _Boston Herald_:--"On the Italian Front, MCMXVI"; Mr. Woodberry, the _New York Times_ and the _North American Review_:--"Sonnets Written in the Fall of 1914."

_The Athenaeum_:--"A Cross in Flanders," by G. Rostrevor Hamilton.

_The Poetry Review_:--"The Messines Road," by Captain J.E. Stewart; "-- But a Short Time to Live," by the late Sergeant Leslie Coulson.

_The Spectator_:--"The Challenge of the Guns," by Private A.N. Field.

The London _Times_:--"To Our Fallen" and "A Petition," by the late Lieutenant Robert Ernest Vernède.

The _Westminster Gazette_:--"Lines Written in Surrey, 1917," by George Herbert Clarke.

Messrs. Barse & Hopkins:--"Fleurette," by Robert W. Service.

The Cambridge University Press and Professor William R. Sorley:-- "_Expectans Expectavi_"; "'All the Hills and Vales Along,'" and "Two Sonnets," by the late Captain Charles Hamilton Sorley, from _Marlborough and Other Poems_.

Messrs. Chatto & Windus:--"Fulfilment" and "The Day's March," by Robert Nichols.

Messrs. Constable & Company:--"Pro Patria," "Thomas of the Light Heart," and "To Belgium in Exile," by Sir Owen Seaman, from _War-Time_; "To France" and "_Requiescant_," by Canon and Major Frederick George Scott, from _In the Battle Silences_.

Messrs. E. P. Dutton & Company:--"To a Soldier in Hospital" (the _Spectator_); "Chaplain to the Forces" and "The Spires of Oxford" (_Westminster Gazette_), by Winifred M. Letts, from _Hallowe'en, and Poems of the War_; "A Chant of Love for England," by Helen Gray Cone, from _A Chant of Love for England, and Other Poems_ (published also by J.M. Dent & Sons, Limited, London).

Lawrence J. Gomme:--"Italy in Arms," by Clinton Scollard, from _Italy in Arms, and Other Poems_.

Messrs. Houghton Mifflin Company:--"To the Belgians"; "Men of Verdun"; "The Anvil"; "Edith Cavell"; "The Healers" and "For the Fallen," by Laurence Binyon, from _The Cause_ (published also by Elkin Mathews, London, in _The Anvil_ and _The Winnowing Fan_); "Headquarters," by Captain Gilbert Frankau, from _A Song of the Guns_; "Place de la Concorde" and "In War-Time," by Florence Earle Coates, from _The Collected Poems of Florence Earle Coates_; "Harvest Moon" and "Harvest Moon, 1915," by Josephine Preston Peabody, from _Harvest Moon_; "The Mobilization in Brittany" and "The Journey," by Grace Fallow Norton, from _Roads_, and "Rheims Cathedral--1914," by Grace Hazard Conkling, from _Afternoons of April_.

John Lane:--"The Kaiser and Belgium," by the late Stephen Phillips.

The John Lane Company:--"The Wife of Flanders," by Gilbert K. Chesterton, from _Poems_ (published also by Messrs. Burns and Gates, London); "The Soldier," and "The Dead," by the late Lieutenant Rupert Brooke, from _The Collected Poems of Rupert Brooke_ (published also by Messrs. Sidgwick & Jackson, London, in _19l4, and Other Poems_).

Erskine Macdonald:--The following poems from _Soldier Poets_:--"The Beach Road by the Wood," by Lieutenant Geoffrey Howard; "Before Action," by the late Lieutenant W.N. Hodgson ("Edward Melbourne"); "Courage," by Lieutenant Dyneley Hussey; "Optimism," by Lieutenant A. Victor Ratcliffe; "The Battlefield," by Major Sidney Oswald; "To an Old Lady Seen at a Guest-House for Soldiers," by Corporal Alexander Robertson; "The Casualty Clearing Station," by Lieutenant Gilbert Waterhouse; and "Hills of Home," by Lance-Corporal Malcolm Hemphrey.

The Macmillan Company:--"To Belgium"; "Verdun"; "To a Mother," and "Song of the Red Cross," by Eden Phillpotts, from _Plain Song, 1914-1916_ (published also by William Heinemann, London); "The Island of Skyros," by John Masefield; "Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight," from _The Congo and Other Poems_, by Vachel Lindsay; "O Glorious France," by Edgar Lee Masters, from _Songs and Satires_; "Christmas, 1915," from _Poems and Plays_, by Percy MacKaye; "The Hellgate of Soissons," by Herbert Kaufman, from _The Hellgate of Soissons_; "Spring in War-Time," by Sara Teasdale, from _Rivers to the Sea_; and "Retreat," "The Messages," and "Between the Lines," by Wilfrid Wilson Gibson.

Messrs. Macmillan & Company:--"Australia to England," by Archibald T. Strong, from _Sonnets of the Empire_, and "Men Who March Away," by Thomas Hardy, from _Satires of Circumstance_.

Elkin Mathews:--"The British Merchant Service" (the _Spectator_), by C. Fox Smith, from _The Naval Crown_.

John Murray:--"The Sign," and "The Trenches," by Lieutenant Frederic Manning.

The Princeton University Press:--"To France," by Herbert Jones, from _A Book of Princeton Verse_.

Messrs. Charles Scribner's Sons:--"I Have a Rendezvous with Death," and "Champagne, 1914-1915," by the late Alan Seeger, from _Poems_.

Messrs. Sherman, French & Company:--"The _William P. Frye_" (_New York Times_), by Jeanne Robert Foster, from _Wild Apples_.

Messrs. Sidgwick & Jackson:--"We Willed It Not" (_The Sphere_), by John Drinkwater; "Three Hills" (London _Times_), by Everard Owen, from _Three Hills, and Other Poems_; "The Volunteer," and "The Fallen Subaltern," by Lieutenant Herbert Asquith, from _The Volunteer, and Other Poems_.

Messrs. Truslove and Hanson:--"A Mother's Dedication," by Margaret Peterson, from _The Women's Message_.

INTRODUCTION

Because man is both militant and pacific, he has expressed in literature, as indeed in the other forms of art, his pacific and militant moods. Nor are these moods, of necessity, incompatible. War may become the price of peace, and peace may so decay as inevitably to bring about war. Of the dully unresponsive pacificist and the jingo patriot, quick to anger, the latter no doubt is the more dangerous to the cause of true freedom, yet both are "undesirable citizens." He who believes that peace is illusory and spurious, unless it be based upon justice and liberty, will be proud to battle, if battle he must, for the sake of those foundations.

For the most part, the poetry of war, undertaken in this spirit, has touched and exalted such special qualities as patriotism, courage, self- sacrifice, enterprise, and endurance. Where it has tended to glorify war in itself, it is chiefly because war has released those qualities, so to speak, in stirring and spectacular ways; and where it has chosen to round upon war and to upbraid it, it is because war has slain ardent and lovable youths and has brought misery and despair to women and old people. But the war poet has left the mere arguments to others. For himself, he has seen and felt. Envisaging war from various angles, now romantically, now realistically, now as the celebrating chronicler, now as the contemplative interpreter, but always in a spirit of catholic curiosity, he has sung, the fall of Troy, the Roman adventures, the mediaeval battles and crusades, the fields of Agincourt and Waterloo, and the more modern revolutions. Since Homer, he has spoken with martial eloquence through, the voices of Drayton, Spenser, Marlowe, Webster, Shakespeare, Milton, Byron, Scott, Burns, Campbell, Tennyson, Browning, the New England group, and Walt Whitman,--to mention only a few of the British and American names,--and he speaks sincerely and powerfully to-day in the writings of Kipling. Hardy, Masefield, Binyon, Newbolt, Watson, Rupert Brooke, and the two young soldiers--the one English, the other American--who have lately lost their lives while on active service: Captain Charles Hamilton Sorley, who was killed at Hulluch, October 18, 1915; and Alan Seeger, who fell, mortally wounded, during the charge on Belloy-en-Santerre, July 4, 1916.

There can be little doubt that these several minds and spirits, stirred by the passion and energy of war, and reacting sensitively both to its cruelties and to its pities, have experienced the kinship of quickened insight and finer unselfishness in the face of wide-ranging death. They have silently compared, perhaps, the normal materialistic conventions in business, politics, education, and religion, with the relief from those conventions that nearly all soldiers and many civilians experience in time of war; for although war has its too gross and ugly side, it has not dared to learn that inflexibility of custom and conduct that deadens the spirit into a tame submission. This strange rebound and exaltation would seem to be due less to the physical realities of war--which must in many ways cramp and constrain the individual--than to the relative spiritual freedom engendered by the needs of war, if they are to be successfully met. The man of war has an altogether unusual opportunity to realize himself, to cleanse and heal himself through the mastering of his physical fears; through the facing of his moral doubts; through the reëxamination of whatever thoughts he may have possessed, theretofore, about life and death and the universe; and through the quietly unselfish devotion he owes to the welfare of his fellows and to the cause of his native land.

Into the stuff of his thought and utterance, whether he be on active service or not, the poet-interpreter of war weaves these intentions, and coöperates with his fellows in building up a little higher and better, from time to time, that edifice of truth for whose completion can be spared no human experience, no human hope.

As already suggested, English and American literatures have both received genuine accessions, even thus early, arising out of the present great conflict, and we may be sure that other equally notable contributions will be made. The present Anthology contains a number of representative poems produced by English-speaking men and women. The editorial policy has been humanly hospitable, rather than academically critical, especially in the case of some of the verses written by soldiers at the Front, which, however slight in certain instances their technical merit may be, are yet psychologically interesting as sincere transcripts of personal experience, and will, it is thought, for that very reason, peculiarly attract and interest the reader. It goes without saying that there are several poems in this group which conspicuously succeed also as works of art. For the rest, the attempt has been made, within such limitations as have been experienced, to present pretty freely the best of what has been found available in contemporary British and American war verse. It must speak for itself, and the reader will find that in not a few instances it does so with sensitive sympathy and with living power; sometimes, too, with that quietly intimate companionableness which we find in Gray's _Elegy_, and which John Masefield, while lecturing in America in 1916, so often indicated as a prime quality in English poetry. But if this quality appears in Chaucer and the pre-Romantics and Wordsworth, it appears also in Longfellow and Lowell, in Emerson and Lanier, and in William Vaughn Moody; for American poetry is, after all, as English poetry,--"with a difference,"--sprung from the same sources, and coursing along similar channels.