The weekly times-record. (Valley City, N.D.) 1912-1922, 1921-02-24
RUPERT BROOKE is
SUBJECT OF PAPER

KUPEHI BROOhE lS
SUBJECT OF PAPER
The subject OF the paper read by
Miss Norton before the Faculty Club
last week is on the poetry of Rupert
Brooke one of the modern British
| poets. The paper follows:
At our first meeting, DIR. Allen in
his paper quoted few lines from Ru-
pert Brooke's Menelaus and Helen:
Oft she weeps, gummy-eyed and i'm
potent;
Her dry shanks twitch at Paris num-
bled name.
This was an excellent illustration of
the revolt of the younger generation
of poets against the established poetic
ideals of the past, but it is not typical
of Rupert Brooke. Several Of his
poems, it is true, contain this disgust
ing so-called realism, but the majority,
the large majority Of his poems are
expressions of beauty, mysticism and
idealism. a.
One of his early poems, which ex-
presses delightfully."- his disregard Of
the accepted forms of poetry is 'The
Chilterns." There is a beauty in those
verses and extraordinary dizziness,
says one critic, "but there is also cal
culated harshness and deliberately
wrought roughness, which make the
reader doubt the poets claim to be
quit of YOUTH even if he is quit of
you,. Some contemporary poets in
fluenced by Masefield, have intention
ally interpolated uncouth lines into
their verse, hoping that by the sud-
den jolt or Earring rhythm they may
create, not merely contrast, but re-
newal Of mood. The smooth flow OF
melodious verse that came from
Tennyson, that comes today from Mr..
Alfred Moves, make the mind sleepy
after a while. Tennyson's peasants are
always ready to touch their caps or
pull their forelocks, and Mr.. Noyes'
registering adventures are not nearly
so raw as they say they are-one
feels that they have never steered
ship through a storm, that they have
never had to tighten their belts to
lessen their hunger, and that their
oaths are learned from books There
was design in Rupert Brooke's un-
couth verse. He wrote,
Oh, I've loved you faithfully and well
Three years, or a bit less
It wasn't success,
with the strict intention of scarifylng
and irritating the professors and aca-
demicians. One almost inraglnes HIM,
as he writes these lines, forgetting
that his love was unkind to him, and
chuckling as he thinks Of the shock
that Professor Saintsbury VIII have
when he reads:
or bit less,
1t wasn't success. m 4
Certainly these remain
And l daresay she will DO.
These verses are clever, but they are
only clever They contain some ut the
bright boys disregard Of tradition.
They are in harmony with the gen.
eral discomfort with established forms
and institutions which became so per
ceptible in artistic endeavor during the
five years Immediately preceding the
European disaster. Youth, FESTIVE I'M
der the clumsy compulsion of age,
suddenly refused to yield any further
obedience to it's elders. |
How far Rupert Brooke's deliberate
ly wrought harshness was part OF that
world movement toward brutality and
primitive impressions, and how TAR 1t
was part of peculiar PERSONAL feel
ing, it is difficult to say.
He was influenced to some extent
by Strindberg and by Masetield, but
neither of these writer's had any per-
manent control over him. The bulk
of his verse, odd as it may seem i'm
view of his reaction from the Tenny-
sonian melody, resembles Tennyson's
poetry. It has the same shapeliness.
The same flow of musical words. Had
he lived, he would doubtless have
abandoned the reactionar1es and made
his peace with the ages" !,
Rupert Brooke was born at Rugby:
August 3, 1887, his father, William
Brooke, being an assistant master at
the school. Here Brooke was educated
and in 1905 won a prize for a poem
called "The Bastille," which has been
described as sine fluent stuff" He
took a keen interest in every form of
athletic sport, and played both cricket
and football for the school. He later
became a fine tennis player, great
walker, and like Byron, found espe-
cial delight in swimming at night:
In 1906, he went to Kings College,
Cambridge, where he made host OF
friends and was counted among the
leading intellectuals Of his day. :.
After taking his degree, he studied
for time in Munich, then, returned to
live near Cambridge, at the old VIC
arage Gin the lovely hamlet Grant
chester" Here he began to devote
himself seriously to writing. His
poems appeared in the Gownsman, The
Cambridge Review, The Nation, The
English Review, and The Westminster
Gazette. Probably the best OF his
poems at this time is "The OLD Vic
arage, Grantchester," which fairly
teens with love for England and is an
exquisite pastoral.
One who knew him at this time says
that "to look at, he was
part of the youth of the
H1J 1ryoS ono IF the hand