THE CONTEMPORARY LYRIC

The period covered by the lyrics in the present section extends roughly from 1890 to the present day. The verse of these years is not infrequently called "the new poetry" as representing a conscious break with the traditions of the Victorian Age just passing. There had been some opposition to these traditions earlier, but it was not until the close of the century that the full reaction got under way. The objec tions which the poets of the eighteen-nineties raised to the practice. of the preceding period were threefold. They felt that poetry, both lyric and narrative, was to much absorbed with literary themes not sufficiently close to real life; that it was hampered by a deadening sense of propriety and moral restraint; and that it had fallen into a conventional poetic diction not like the speech of the people. Th reaction against these tendencies, recalling similar revolts in the past, showed itself in various ways.

In general it may be described as a spirit of insurgency characteristic of the time. a spirit that finds its counterpart in the sculpture of Rodin, the music of Strauss and the painting of the "moderns." In English literature perhaps the earliest form which it took was a denial of the connection, formerly assumed, between literature and ethics, the doctrine of Oscar Wilde that art is worthy to be cultivated for its own sake without reference to morals. Opposition to the Victorian reticence and instinctive shrinking from the unpleasant in life became in some quarters a desire frankly to shock. There were those who tasted life at the dregs or assumed the air of having done so. In some this attitude was carried to a point where it became plainly decadent and is reflected in their verse.

The revolt against Victorian convention soon became more general. The nonconformist, the revolutionist, the reformer, and even the poseur are not always easily distinguished, but they have one quality in common. They are all sympathetic to change, and tolerant of novelty. It is a fundamental assumption in contemporary poetry that each man has the right to complete self-development, the right to be different. Ours is an age of experiment: imagist poetry and free verse are merely evidences of the desire to seek new effects by new methods. Under the circumstances we must expect to find variety and complexity as characteristics of the period.

It would be impossible in this brief compass to pursue the separate movements that have a place in these recent decades of English poetry. Important among them would be the Celtic Renaissance, of which William Butler Yeats is the outstanding figure. The "poets of empire," of whom Rudyard Kipling heads the list, and the poets of the war, who have given us such splendid pieces as "In Flanders Fields." "The Spires of Oxford," and "The Soldier," all printed below, illustrate importan sources of inspiration. One tendency of great importance must be mentioned, th

return to the simplicity of everyday life and the idiom of everyday speech. The truth of Synge's assertion that "when men lose their poetic feeling for ordinary life, and cannot write poetry of ordinary things, their exalted poetry is likely to lose its strength of exaltation, in the way that men cease to build beautiful churches when they have lost happiness in building shops" has been fully recognized. A. E. Housman's little collection of verses, A Shropshire Lad, admirably illustrates the power inherent in simple themes. Fortunately its influence has been great, for its simplicity, directness, and sincerity are the qualities of contemporary lyric poetry, as of all art, at its best.

Of recent years a further poetic revolt has been in progress in the verse of a radical wing whose attitude towards poetry is part of a larger opposition to the old order of things in general. Its views are very stimulating. It insists on hard, sharp effects, and asserts a preference for short simple words; it is characterized by great freedom of rhythm and phrasing, at times by perversity of mood and theme tending toward disillusionment, pessimism, and even the nasty, and seeks to create its effects without interpreting the emotion for the reader. Some excellent poetry guarantees the sincerity of the movement.

In a summer haven asleep, thy white sails That love will change in growing old;

And anchor queen of the strange ship- His little spring, that sweet we found,

H