New-York tribune., 1919-11-08
Louis Untermeyer Speaks of Verse
Author Of New Era in American Poetry"
Declares Poetry Our Beginning in Art

dominant note ~ tho discovery Of
something typically and pungently
American.
What we are only beginning TO
realize said Untermoyer, as that not
only in our poetry Is our equiv
alent Of the English novel, as
Gilbert Cannan says, but that il
IS our American discovery Of art. We
have had no native art until this. In
painting we have turned out perhaps
three artists of approximately first
rank; and they have, like Whistler, all
been shaped by foreign influences. In
music we have only Mac Dowcll, and
he wrote with Scottish idiom. Our
prose literature is derived from tho
English or from the French But in
our free verse We have reached an In
digenous expression. Whitman reached
down and tapped something absolutely
native and unique The French wero
quick TO see his greatness, and they
embodied him IN their forms before
we did. Bu; even when in the mod
err insurgent movement we copied the
French free verse forms, We were only
getting back our own: we we're re
turning the Whitmanic stream 10 It's
course.
I'VE arc expressing In our modern
American poetry more things than poe
try has been made 10 say before and
saying them In more varied ways. The
English have hlazed no new trails in
verse. In De La Mare and Hodgson
and Bridges, in spite of their forms,
the " ordsworthan strain is continued.
Theirs are lyrical expressions which
still come out Of the pastoral and lovely
English countryside.
"Does ali this rush Of expression
have cohcrence--does It seem 20 you
to form pattern o. asked
ut does just that. We are conf
bounded OF richer and more varied
strains than any other nation, each
asserting Its own aspirations in its own
idiom. bat joining 20 form something
uniquely and powerfully American.
There is James Oppenheim, for in
stance. Consciously or not, he brings
to modern verse something Eastern,
something OF his rhapsodic Nebraic
strain. The Messianic hope that q re-
deemer viii still ba found for TIE
world. From Robert Frost there gushes
vein OF poetry, slowly like an icy
stream that trichles from r rocky hill-
side but il is favored and nutty and
sweet with something Of the tang o.
maple In il, Il - austere and little
thin, bur all the fine flavor of New Eng
land is in it. And there il Nachel Lind
say. who shouts with the raucous voice
OIL lHP MlNIlS w t>L III sell con SC.cUN
discovery OF itself He is perhaps
closest 70 the Whitmanic tradition and
rs ecstatic discovery OF the common
man. Rhymes, ragtime and religion are
ms three RS. And Edgar Lee Masters,
Wno mas lifted the gossip of sinai
AMI mean towns into the great anc
universal stutF OF poetry. And Car
Sardpurg, who has lifted 90 cVriousiy
the common speech OF America into
poetry, making .he words Of the Ledge.
-ne street, the factory into something
eloquent and revealing These are
)nly = few % the dozens VINO are
weaving ,he varcd threads Of Amer
car life into an intelligible pattern.
"Al this Experimentation Is proof
Of our vitality. We are Er0plIe oNr
way toward things that have not been
articulated before in poetry ard
neither the old form nor the old code
of literary morals is OF any Bse 20 Us.
Til. old rules do not tit tAe game at
my point. but in groping for new
.et OF values much that IS odd and
excessive and even worthless IS mixed
zap VII VIA. IL really of'slNai and
fine
!, is doabtfal whether tais defensp
81 modern literary morals xii! carry
weigh. with the academ'clans or
gcnerations they have sa. 10 az poetry
80 ~ gentlemans game, serene III
-ns digniied assurance that no ore
present had t. card un his sleeve. ne
aataos Of ending themselves saddealy
r The company Of players weo are
anahaSaed a. being caesnt Y'itn whole
lece n reserve. ryno brazenfy pay -
win. who cneerfu.l. Outrage 'orm and
1ao yalgarly argue points, 5 obvious.
After ali. whatever detoa. .ne scade-
mic.ans suffer a. the hands OF the free
yarsificrs. theirs vii always De tne
moral victory Only the rate o. eN-
change on moral victories has always
been iow.