Modern British Poetry by Louis Untermeyer

Edited by Louis Untermeyer and printed in 1920, Modern British Poetry highlights the poets of the early Georgian era (1910-1920). Half of them have been forgotten. Others, like John Masefield, Rudyard Kipling, Walter de la Mare, G.K. Chesterton, Thomas Hardy, and Robert Louis Stevenson have endured. And no anthology of “modern” poets would be complete without the WWI poems of Siegfried Sassoon and Rupert Brooke who eloquently decried the brutality of war.

In general, the Georgian poets wrote in reaction to the sentimentality of the Victorian era and its “rhymed sermons.” Much of their poetry is realistic and fatalistic. William Ernest Henley’s Invictus makes sense coming out of this time period of societal renunciation of a Higher Power and man’s subsequent dependence on himself. I am amazed that in the midst of such pessimism and cynicism that poets like Stevenson, de la Mare and Davies were able to find their voices.  

Untermeyer gives an introduction to each poet and one or two samples of his poetry. Some of his descriptions were less than flattering. On Alfred Noyes, he wrote, “Unfortunately, Noyes has not developed his gifts as deeply as his admirers have hoped. His poetry, extremely straightforward and rhythmical, has often degenerated into cheap sentimentalities and cheaper tirades; it has frequently attempted to express programs and profundities far beyond Noye’s power.” He describes D.H. Lawrence poetry as rife with “a febrile morbidity to an exalted and almost frenzied mysticism.” (!)

Most amusing of all, he predicts that Chesterton will be remembered for his poetry rather than his prose.

This was a free-for-kindle title which led me down a rabbit trail to many other obscure gems. I added about a dozen books to my TBR list!

Blessings,