The Works of Sydney Fowler Wright 1874 - 1965

The County Series of Contemporary Poetry No. III

Kent and Essex Poetry in Great Britain
CONTEMPORARY KENT & ESSEX POETRY No III.
Chosen and edited by S. Fowler Wright
Preface by S. Fowler Wright (Editor of POETRY AND THE PLAY)

Fowler Wright Ltd., London


ACKNOWLEDGMENT.

Acknowledgments for permission to reprint are due to the Editor of the Times Woman's Supplement (for Miss Mary Bell's "Three Days"); to the Stork Music Company (for Mrs Blanche Darwall's "When I Pass On"); to the Editor of Punch and to Messrs George Bell and Sons, Ltd., (for Captain Douglas English's "Wild Horses" and "Woodmouse"); to the Editor of the New Age (for Miss Ruth Pitter's "In Praise"); to Messrs William Heinemann, Ltd., (for Miss Sackville-West's poems from "The Land"); and to the Editor of The Spectator (for Mr Ashley Sampson's "The Prisoner").

      To see a world in a grain of sand,
        And a heaven in a wild flower,
      Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
        And eternity in an hour.

WILLIAM BLAKE.

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 organization, 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 recognize 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 are discussed more fully.

        So compiled, and with an impartial purpose of showing what the poetry of today 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 sometimes 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 realize 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 in universal, wherever an intelligent effort be made to organize 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

ROGER ARMFELT
        THE DREAMER
        BROCADE
DAPHNE V. N. ASTLEY-WAKE
        INSPIRATION
JOHN ASTON
        BALLADE DES BELLES CITES DU TEMPS JADIS
        ELEGY
HUGHES ATKINSON
        A GARDEN BUNCH
IDA BARNES
        TO SHELLEY
        ESSEX
MARY BELL
        THREE DAYS
LOUISA BENT
        THE CHILD JESUS
ERNEST W. BOXALL
        THE ALTERNATIVE
BLANCHE BYROM
        HYACINTHUS
        ODE TO A BUTTERFLY
        CALVARY
        SPRING SONG
        CAPRICE
        LEDA
        THE COMING OF CHLORIS
        EVENTIDE
        NIGHT
        DEATH
        THE MONTH OF MAY
J. NICHOLLS COOPER
        AUTUMN
BLANCHE DARWALL
        WHEN I PASS ON
        THIS IS NOT ALL
        IMAGINATION
        A LOVE SONG
DOUGLAS ENGLISH
        WILD HORSES
        WOODMOUSE
GWYN GAISFORD
        THE PRIMROSE
        FLUTTERBY-BUTTERFLY
V. D. GOODWIN
        WITHOUT THE GATE
DOROTHY M. HOBBS
        ENGLAND
D. GRAHAM HUTTON
        CONTENT
ISABEL KEMSLEY
        YOUR SMILE
        REGENERATION
        REST
        GOD'S GIFT
HILDA MARGARET AGNES LAMBERT
        THE SCOTCH FIR
FRANK LEWIS
        THE GRAVEL PIT
THE REV. W. E. LUTYENS
        EASTER DAY
ELSIE G. MAULEVERER
        TO-DAY! TO-DAY!
        THE LARK'S SONG
        THE SAME OLD ROAD
        CAN I FORGET?
        THE ROPIN' IV THE HAY
        THE CHURNING
IRENE M. MAUNDER
        PIPER'S WOOD
        AUTUMN MORNING
        WINTER
        THE BLUE VASE
WILL MEADE
        YEOMAN NED
MARGARET R. MUSGRAVE
        MEMORY
        LOVE'S PATHWAY
        BLOSSOMING DAYS
GEORGE O'HALLORAN
        THE DEBTOR
        FAILURE
        TIME AND MATTER
        APPREHENSION
        A KNACKER'S YARD FOR SHIPS
MARGARET OWEN
        THE CATHEDRAL
        A SONG OF KENT
        THE CHERRY-TREE'S A-BLOOM
        CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL
        THE CORNER
        THE LITTLE ROADS OF ENGLAND
        THE BALLAD OP ST CLARE AND THE PIPER
RUTH PITTER
        FIDELE
        IN PRAISE
HARRIET PRICE
        THE NIGHT BIRD
        AUTUMN FIELDS
        OUT OF THE STORM
        THERE CAME OVER THE OCEAN ONE DAY
OLIVIA PRICE
        GOOD-BYE
        ON A ROSE BLOOMING IN NOVEMBER
        ON SEEING A BLACKBIRD LINGER IN MY GARDEN
        TO - -
        MARY CHAWORTH
KATHLEEN RIVETT
        DEATH
        THE ENCHANTED PRINCESS
        UNFORGETFULNESS
V. SACKVILLE-WEST
        TUSCANY
        MOONLIGHT
        THE ISLAND
        FRATERNITY
ASHLEY SAMPSON
        THE END OF THE HUNT
        TWILIGHT
        THE PRISONER
        THE LOVE OF POETRY
AGNES DEWAR SCOTT
        MY FEBRUARY SINGER
        ON A JANUARY MORNING
        LONDON AFTERNOON
        ON LONDON BRIDGE
        TWO CAROLS - I
                                II
        A SONNET
        WHEN I HAVE LEAVE TO WANDER
        KENTISH FIELD-FLOWERS
MARGARET STEPHENS
        HE WAS MADE FLESH
B. L. TOWNSHEND
        SONNET
        DIRGE
        AFTER LIFE
ELLA TUCKER
        AN APRIL DAY
        TO THE MEN OF A LOST SUBMARINE
MILLICENT WEDMORE
        LA TOUSSAINT
HAROLD WINTLE
        THE SPIRIT OF THE GARDEN

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