Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1921-03-12
NEW USES FOR POETRY

SfhlNG poetry of tho sort thot hrooks
~ through the surface of almost cvcrv
prln,cd page at this time Of the year Is
usually written in December Poets. too.
i,, maNe 20 consider the whims Of markets and.
IKE the folk who design your nccktics thev
have to work far in advance Of tho dirnct
demand. That may be why STYLES in lvric
verse are revealing so many evidences Of
artticnlity and change.
iherc are minstrels who still can rct tbn
authentic sound and sense of resurocpt ,;f,
INTO their stuff. but they are growing fcwcr
ana IL was one of these honest to goodness
poets who recently detained in print an
opJectloh 10 the newer styles in song and
presented an astonishing theory IN oynIoin In
what he calls the decadcnce Of rho Irricis,'s
ART Spring poetry, he contendcd harshlv
- no longer spring poetry, because most Of
II ~ written by women. In the work Of the
.iouern women poets n poet who obyiousIy
IS proud of his manhood finds moro thon
s'gnS or incptitude and insincerity. Hc finds
actual traces of indelicacy and n rude towing
win 9iIiSions not wholly proper.
'u",y enough. there appears to be some
sr"unH Tor TINS amazing indictment. 1t is
~ w lound chlohy in the free verse beloved
D! almost all the younger poets. IN the old
days spring verse told of willows md flash
ing brooks and butterflies and sweet. in
uennlte ache in the writer's heart Dlu,+
trankness is the fashion now. To bo n
modern poet in the true sense you must he
or pretend to be pagan. Pagan verse is run
ning pretty wild among the advanced poets
Inc singer moved by springer by the mem.
9rles OF spring that can be kept warm until
becerhoer-chants of desire to 20 forth
upon sunny hills, there to break one or moro
of the Commandments. Thus tho groot Ifroo
is supposed to be adequately revealed Froc
verse written in this mood usually presents
u SPADE as spade. 1t often bristlcs with
toroldden words. And it is true that II
sometimes assumes its most reckless forms
under the hands of women writer's here md
abroad who have become skilled and notcd
leaders of the Verse Cutters and Wclders'
Union.
FOR ourselves. we never were wholly averse
=" 'ne ne" schools of poetry or ready to
reject free verse as n form too trivial md
easy to be called art Free verse n, ire
worst has one great virtue. 1t has brcvitv
ana dlrectneSs. 1t is sharp and unadorncd.
II mas what yon might call edge. Any one
VINO ever has tried TO get the meaning ont Of
polltical speech or treatise relative To
economies or party platform never can
snare the hatred of old fashioned poets for
the new. II, for example, the spokcsmen
tVr the railway companies were to present
th''r case IN free verse, in the penetrating
Ae'''Ai'ui W amy Lowell Lola
hldge, they could make themselves undor
stood in no time. The facts that Mr. Attcr.
oury and his associates have been irving 70
reveal 10 the country-inexorabe and rather
dreadful tacts-would not continue to apppor
ike almost indisCCrnible forms clouded In
mist. Mr.. GomperS. had he the peculior
talents OF Miss Lowell. might have nut more
real meaning into a few inches Of free verse
than he put into the several yards of tb,
recent labor PLATFORM"
Life would be far moro divertinc and nor
maps simpler in many ways II congressman
and politicians, economists and proun Icad.
ers in industry could boil down their stuff
RS vigorously as any good free vcrsifier does
one can fancy railroad president with gold
eyeglasses and white vest rising before n
congressional committee, clearing his throat
and, as the advocate Of higher rates onG
lower wages, barking out something like
this: ""'
Dark and fierce:
CnesCapable;
The shadow OF deb,
Clouds all
Our days
Our hearts wIther
Our hands fall.
Ahead
Is an open switch
And bitches:
And Gompers.
Old Stone-FaCe GompeTs
Doesn't want us
To turn off
The steam :"
MIR. GOmpers would not remain silent
In his turn he would spring to his feet and
the newspapers would say that Mr.. Gompers
said:
Il see a fog
And dark shapes moving
In the fog
Doing Rdro!t
Mysterious works
They spin their own fogs-
These Invisible lowers
SO that We
May not know what the,
Are doing.
First, and above al things
Labor demands
An anti-fog law -
Fancy Hiram johnson free .vcrslng in the
course Of the debate on the Colombian treaty
For fifteen years
From their high mountp!ns
They cried out lies
About Theodore Roosevelt
About the greatest leader
That the world has known
Since Moses!
Now they want Us
Us -
TO pay them S@5,000,60p
Because they have done
This thing"
| Congress will never adopt the tree verse
form for its speeches. 1t would save too much
! time 1t wouldn't know what to do with al
its leisure.