Part 1
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MODERN AMERICAN POETRY
(_Revised and Enlarged Edition_)
BY
LOUIS UNTERMEYER
Author of “_Challenge_,” “_Including Horace_,” “_The New Era in American Poetry_,” etc.
NEW YORK HARCOURT, BRACE AND COMPANY
COPYRIGHT, 1919, 1921, BY HARCOURT, BRACE AND COMPANY, INC.
PRINTED IN THE U. S. A. BY THE QUINN & SODEN COMPANY RAHWAY, N J
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
For permission to reprint most of the material in this volume, the editor wishes to thank not only the poets whose coöperation has been of such assistance, but also the publishers, all of whom are holders of the copyright. The indebtedness is alphabetically acknowledged to:
RICHARD G. BADGER—for the poems from _Sun and Saddle Leather_ and _Grass-Grown Trails_ by Badger Clark.
BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY—for two poems from _The Complete Works of James Whitcomb Riley_.
BRENTANO’S—for two poems from _Chanteys and Ballads_ by Harry Kemp.
NICHOLAS L. BROWN—for the poem from _Blood of Things_ by Alfred Kreymborg.
THE CENTURY COMPANY—for the selections from _Merchants from Cathay_ by William Rose Benét and _War and Laughter_ by James Oppenheim.
THE CENTURY MAGAZINE—for “Lake Song” by Jean Starr Untermeyer.
DODD, MEAD & COMPANY—for the two poems from _Lyrics of Lowly Life_ and one poem from _Lyrics of Love and Laughter_ by Paul Laurence Dunbar.
GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY—for the selections from _Moons of Grandeur_ by William Rose Benét, _Banners_ by Babette Deutsch, _Trees and Other Poems_ by Joyce Kilmer, and _Hide and Seek_ by Christopher Morley.
DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY—for the selections from _In Other Words_ and _Tobogganning on Parnassus_ by Franklin P. Adams, _The Man with the Hoe_ and _Lincoln and Other Poems_ by Edwin Markham.
E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY—for the selections from _The Vale of Tempe_ by Madison Cawein and _Lanterns in Gethsemane_ by Willard Wattles.
FOUR SEAS COMPANY—for the quotations from _The Charnel Rose_, _The Jig of Forslin_ and _The House of Dust_ by Conrad Aiken.
HILLACRE BOOKHOUSE—for the quotations from _Arrows in the Gale_ by Arturo Giovannitti.
HARCOURT, BRACE & COMPANY—for the selections from _A Miscellany of American Poetry—1920_; _Canzoni_ and _Carmina_ by T. A. Daly, _Piping and Panning_ by Edwin Meade Robinson, _Smoke and Steel_ by Carl Sandburg, _Challenge_ and _The New Adam_ by Louis Untermeyer, and _The Roamer and Other Poems_ by George Edward Woodberry.
HARPER & BROTHERS—for the selections from _Fables for the Frivolous_ by Guy Wetmore Carryl and _Dreams and Dust_ by Don Marquis.
HARR WAGNER PUBLISHING CO.—for the selections from _The Complete Poetical Works of Joaquin Miller_.
HENRY HOLT & COMPANY—for the selections from _Wilderness Songs_ by Grace Hazard Conkling, _Portraits and Protests_ by Sarah N. Cleghorn, _A Boy’s Will_, _North of Boston_, and _Mountain Interval_ by Robert Frost; _Outcasts in Beulah Land_ by Roy Helton, _Chicago Poems_ and _Cornhuskers_ by Carl Sandburg, _These Times_ by Louis Untermeyer, and _Factories_ by Margaret Widdemer.
The selections from _The Complete Poems of Thomas Bailey Aldrich_, _The Complete Works of Bret Harte_, _The Shoes That Danced_ by Anna Hempstead Branch, _Davy and the Goblin_ by Charles E. Carryl, _Grimm Tales Made Gay_ by Guy Wetmore Carryl, _Riders of the Stars_ and _Songs of the Trail_ by Harry Herbert Knibbs, _Poems and Poetic Dramas_ by William Vaughn Moody, _Lyrics of Joy_ by Frank Dempster Sherman, _Poems_ by Edward Rowland Sill, _Sea Garden_ by “H. D.,” and the quotations from _Some Imagist Poets—1916_ and _Some Imagist Poets—1917_ are used by permission of, and by special arrangement with HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY, the authorized publishers.
B. W. HUEBSCH—for the selections from _A Family Album_ by Alter Brody, _The Vaunt of Man_ by William Ellery Leonard, _The Ghetto_ and _Sun-Up_ by Lola Ridge, _Optimos_ by Horace Traubel, _Growing Pains_ and _Dreams out of Darkness_ by Jean Starr Untermeyer, and _The Hesitant Heart_ by Winifred Welles.
ALFRED A. KNOPF—for the selections from _A Canticle of Pan_ by Witter Bynner, _Colors of Life_ by Max Eastman, _Poems_ by T. S. Eliot, _Asphalt and Other Poems_ by Orrick Johns, _Mushrooms_ by Alfred Kreymborg, _Songs for the New Age_ by James Oppenheim, _Lustra_ by Ezra Pound, _Profiles from China_ and _Body and Raiment_ by Eunice Tietjens.
THE LAURENTIAN PUBLISHERS—for the poem from _Motley Measures_ by Bert Leston Taylor.
THE LIBERATOR—for a poem by Jean Starr Untermeyer.
LITTLE, BROWN & COMPANY—for the selections from _Poems_ and _Poems—Third Series_ by Emily Dickinson.
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY—for the selections from _Poems_ by Gladys Cromwell, _Youth Riding_ by Mary Carolyn Davies, _The Congo and Other Poems_ and _The Chinese Nightingale_ by Vachel Lindsay, _Sword Blades and Poppy Seed_ and _Pictures of the Floating World_ by Amy Lowell, _Spoon River Anthology_ and _Songs and Satires_ by Edgar Lee Masters, _The Quest_ by John G. Neihardt, _The Man Against the Sky_ by Edwin Arlington Robinson, _Love Songs_ and _Flame and Shadow_ by Sara Teasdale, _Bluestone_ by Marguerite Wilkinson.
ROBERT M. MCBRIDE & COMPANY—for the two poems taken from _From the Hidden Way_ by James Branch Cabell.
THE MANAS PRESS—for the selections from _Verse_ by Adelaide Crapsey.
THOMAS B. MOSHER—for the selections from _A Quiet Road_ and _A Wayside Lute_ by Lizette Woodworth Reese and _The Flower from the Ashes_ by Edith M. Thomas.
THE NEW REPUBLIC—for a poem by Ridgely Torrence.
PAGAN PUBLISHING COMPANY—for two poems from _Minna and Myself_ by Maxwell Bodenheim.
POETRY: A MAGAZINE OF VERSE—for the two poems by Edwin Ford Piper and a sonnet by David Morton.
A. M. ROBERTSON—for the sonnet from _The House of Orchids_ by George Sterling.
CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS—for the selections from _Poems_ by Henry Cuyler Bunner, _Poems_ by Eugene Field, _The Bashful Earthquake_ by Oliver Herford, _Poems of Sidney Lanier_, _The Children of the Night_ and _The Town Down the River_ by Edwin Arlington Robinson, and _Poems_ by Alan Seeger.
FRANK SHAY—for the quotation from _Figs from Thistles_ by Edna St. Vincent Millay.
SHERMAN, FRENCH & COMPANY—for the two poems from _The Human Fantasy_ and _The Belovèd Adventure_ by John Hall Wheelock.
SMALL, MAYNARD & COMPANY—for the selections from _Ballads of Lost Haven_ by Bliss Carman, _Along the Trail_ by Richard Hovey, _Songs from Vagabondia_ and _More Songs from Vagabondia_ by Richard Hovey and Bliss Carman, and the poem by Charlotte Perkins Stetson Gilman.
THE SONNET—for _Frustrate_ by Leslie Nelson Jennings.
F. A. STOKES COMPANY—for the selections from _War Is Kind_ by Stephen Crane, _Grenstone Poems_ by Witter Bynner, and _Poems by a Little Girl_ by Hilda Conkling.
STURGIS & WALTON COMPANY—for the poem from _Monday Morning_ by James Oppenheim.
VANITY FAIR—for “Wild Swans” and a sonnet by Edna St. Vincent Millay.
THE YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS—for selections from _Young Adventure_ by Stephen Vincent Benét and _The Burglar of the Zodiac_ by William Rose Benét.
THE YALE REVIEW—for “The Onset” by Robert Frost.
For several suggestions toward the preparation of this revised edition I am especially indebted to Professors Percy H. Boynton, John Livingston Lowes, Fred Lewis Pattee and Floyd Dell. This acknowledgment is a slight expression of my gratitude as well as a record of my obligation.
CONTENTS
PAGE
PREFACE xvii
EMILY DICKINSON (1830–1886) Chartless 4 Indian Summer 4 Suspense 5 The Railway Train 6 A Cemetery 6 Beclouded 7
THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH (1836–1907) Memory 8 “Enamored Architect of Airy Rhyme” 9 Two Quatrains: Maple Leaves 9 Pessimist and Optimist 10
JOHN HAY (1838–1905) Jim Bludso 11 Banty Tim 13
BRET HARTE (1839–1902) “Jim” 16 Plain Language from Truthful James 19
JOAQUIN MILLER (1841–1913) By the Pacific Ocean 23 Crossing the Plains 24 From “Byron” 25
EDWARD ROWLAND SILL (1841–1887) Solitude 26 Dare You? 26
SIDNEY LANIER (1842–1881) Song of the Chattahoochee 29 Night and Day 31 From “The Marshes of Glynn” 32
CHARLES EDWARD CARRYL (1842–1920) The Plaint of the Camel 34 Robinson Crusoe’s Story 35
JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY (1849–1916) “When the Frost is on the Punkin” 39 A Parting Guest 41
EUGENE FIELD (1850–1895) Our Two Opinions 43 Little Boy Blue 44 Seein’ Things 45
EDWIN MARKHAM (1852– ) Outwitted 48 The Man with the Hoe 49 Preparedness 51 Lincoln, The Man of the People 51
C. E. S. WOOD (1852– ) Sunrise 53 The Desert 54
IRWIN RUSSELL (1853–1879) Blessing the Dance 56 De Fust Banjo 58
EDITH M. THOMAS (1854– ) “Frost To-Night” 61
GEORGE EDWARD WOODBERRY (1855– ) Immortal Love 62 A Song of Sunrise 63
H. C. BUNNER (1855–1896) Shake, Mulleary and Go-ethe 64 Behold the Deeds 66 A Pitcher of Mignonette 68
LIZETTE WOODWORTH REESE (1856– ) Tears 69 The Dust 70 Spicewood 70
HORACE TRAUBEL (1858–1919) How Are You, Dear World, This Morning? 72 O My Dead Comrade 74
FRANK DEMPSTER SHERMAN (1860–1917) At Midnight 76 Bacchus 76 Two Quatrains: Ivy 77 Dawn 78
CHARLOTTE P. S. GILMAN (1860– ) A Conservative 78
LOUISE IMOGEN GUINEY (1861–1920) The Wild Ride 80
BLISS CARMAN (1861– ) A Vagabond Song 83 The Gravedigger 83 Hem and Haw 86 Daisies 87
RICHARD BURTON (1861– ) Black Sheep 88
OLIVER HERFORD (1863– ) Earth 89 The Elf and the Dormouse 90
RICHARD HOVEY (1864–1900) At the Crossroads 92 Unmanifest Destiny 94 Love in the Winds 95 A Stein Song 95
MADISON CAWEIN (1865–1914) Snow 98 The Man Hunt 98 Penury 100 Deserted 100
BERT LESTON TAYLOR (1866–1921) Canopus 101
WILLIAM VAUGHN MOODY (1869–1910) From “Jetsam” 103 Pandora’s Song 104 On a Soldier Fallen in the Philippines 105
GEORGE STERLING (1869– ) The Black Vulture 107 The Master Mariner 108
EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON (1869– ) Miniver Cheevy 111 The Gift of God 112 The Master 114 An Old Story 117 Richard Cory 117 Vain Gratuities 118 The Dark Hills 119
EDGAR LEE MASTERS (1869– ) Petit, The Poet 121 Lucinda Matlock 122 Anne Rutledge 123 Silence 123
STEPHEN CRANE (1871–1900) I Saw a Man 127 The Wayfarer 128 Hymn 128 The Blades of Grass 129
EDWIN FORD PIPER (1871– ) Bindlestiff 130 Sweetgrass Range 132
T. A. DALY (1871– ) The Song of the Thrush 134 Mia Carlotta 135 Between Two Loves 136
PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR (1872–1906) The Turning of the Babies in the Bed 138 A Coquette Conquered 140 Discovered 141
GUY WETMORE CARRYL (1873–1904) How Jack Found that Beans May Go Back on a Chap 143 The Sycophantic Fox and the Gullible Raven 145 How a Cat Was Annoyed and a Poet Was Booted 147
H. H. KNIBBS (1874– ) The Valley That God Forgot 151 Roll a Rock Down 153 The Trail-Makers 155
ANNA HEMPSTEAD BRANCH The Monk in the Kitchen 158 While Loveliness Goes By 162
AMY LOWELL (1874– ) Solitaire 165 Meeting-House Hill 165 A Lady 166 Free Fantasia on Japanese Themes 167 Madonna of the Evening Flowers 169 Wind and Silver 170
RIDGELY TORRENCE (1875– ) The Bird and the Tree 171 The Son 173
ROBERT FROST (1875– ) Mending Wall 177 The Tuft of Flowers 178 The Death of the Hired Man 181 Good-Bye and Keep Cold 187 The Runaway 188 Birches 189 Fragmentary Blue 191 The Onset 192
WILLIAM ELLERY LEONARD (1876– ) The Image of Delight 193 To the Victor 194
SARAH N. CLEGHORN (1876– ) The Survival of the Fittest 195 The Incentive 195
CARL SANDBURG (1878– ) Cool Tombs 198 Fog 199 From “Smoke and Steel” 199 Blue Island Intersection 202 Clean Curtains 203 A. E. F. 204 Nocturne in a Deserted Brickyard 205 Grass 205
ADELAIDE CRAPSEY (1878–1914) Three Cinquains: November Night 206 Triad 207 The Warning 207 On Seeing Weather-Beaten Trees 207
GRACE HAZARD CONKLING (1878– ) The Whole Duty of Berkshire Brooks 208 Frost on a Window 208
AMELIA JOSEPHINE BURR (1878– ) Battle-Song of Failure 209
DON MARQUIS (1878– ) Unrest 211
JOHN ERSKINE (1879– ) Dedication 213
JAMES BRANCH CABELL (1879– ) Sea-Scapes 214 One End of Love 215
VACHEL LINDSAY (1879– ) The Eagle That Is Forgotten 219 The Congo 221 To a Golden Haired Girl in a Louisiana Town 229 The Traveller 229 A Negro Sermon:—Simon Legree 230 Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight 232
EDWIN MEADE ROBINSON (1879– ) How He Turned Out 234 “Halcyon Days” 236
FRANKLIN P. ADAMS (1881– ) War and Peace 238 The Rich Man 238 Those Two Boys 239
JOHN G. NEIHARDT (1881– ) When I Am Dead 241 Cry of the People 241 Let Me Live Out My Years 242
WITTER BYNNER (1881– ) Grass-Tops 244 Voices 244 A Farmer Remembers Lincoln 245 Train-Mates 246
JAMES OPPENHEIM (1882– ) The Runner in the Skies 250 The Slave 250 Tasting the Earth 251 The Lincoln Child 252 Night Note 257
ALICE CORBIN Echoes of Childhood 258
LOLA RIDGE Passages from “The Ghetto” 262 New Orleans 265 Wind in the Alleys 265
WALLACE STEVENS Peter Quince at the Clavier 266
ALFRED KREYMBORG (1883– ) Old Manuscript 270 Dawns 271 Her Eyes 272 Improvisation 272
ARTHUR DAVISON FICKE (1883– ) Portrait of an Old Woman 274 The Three Sisters 275 Sonnet 275
BADGER CLARK (1883– ) The Glory Trail 276 The Coyote 279
MARGUERITE WILKINSON (1883– ) Before Dawn in the Woods 280
HARRY KEMP (1883– ) Street Lamps 282 A Phantasy of Heaven 282
MAX EASTMAN (1883– ) Coming to Port 284 Hours 285 At the Aquarium 285
ARTURO GIOVANNITTI (1884– ) From “The Walker” 287