No More Learning

Poetry and poets / a readers list chosen and arranged by Theresa
West Elmendorf . . .
Elmendorf, Theresa West, 1855-1932. Chicago : American library association, 1931.
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POETRY AND
POETS
A READERS LIST chosen and arranged by Theresa West Elmendorf
That great poem which all poets, like the cooperative thoughts of one great mind, have built up since, the begining of the world. —shelley.
CHICAGO
AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION
EDITOR'S NOTE
The pleasant courtesy of Doubleday, Doran and Company, through the chief of their Junior department, Miss May Massee, makes it possible for the American Library Association to issue this list. It is reprinted from the Reading List appended to their delightful book, The winged horse, by Joseph Auslander and Frank Ernest Hill.
There are not many changes from the original. A few titles have been added. Some alterations in arrangement may make use of the lists a little easier.
The most considerable change made has been the addition, at the request of American Library Association authorities, of appreciative notes to many titles. These notes have been gath ered from many sources, chief among which are the publica tions of the American Library Association, the Booklist and the A. L. A. catalog, 1926, the Book Review Digest and the offi cial order-room files of the Buffalo Public Library.
The poets mentioned are, almost all of them, those celebrated in The winged horse and the editions are, where there was choice, simple ones which yet could be relied upon to be correct.
In short, the list is a reader's list, not a student's or a buyer's list. Its sole purpose is to enhance, perhaps, delight in reading the poets' own work. In that hope it was originally made and in that hope it has been revised.
January, 1931
Theresa West Elmendorf
n 155
CONTENTS I. The Chosen Poets : Texts
IV. The Forms, Measures and Rhythms of English Poetry
V. Studies of the Chosen Poets and Their Poetry
VI. Texts and Studies of the Poets Arranged by Periods or the Poets' Dates
Anthologies
II.
III. The Joy and Praise of Poetry
I.
THE CHOSEN POETS: TEXTS
By poetry I mean what has been written by Homer, Dante, Shakespeare and some others. —
Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch.
1
Aeschylus. Lyrical dramas; tr. into English verse by John
Stuart Blackie. [1850] (Everyman) Dutton, 1906.
In telling the great hero stories [he] made human sorrow majestic, but chiefly celebrated the power and justice of the gods. . . . To Aeschy lus Zeus and his companions were just, though fearful, much like the Jehovah of the Hebrew prophets. —The winged horse.
2
Aiken, Conrad. Selected poems. Scribner, 1929.
He has woven melodies that might have charmed the Lady of Shalott back into her dream world. . . . He can make pictures lovely in their strangeness.
3
Appleton, William Hyde, comp. Greek poets in English verse. Houghton, 1893.
Dutton, 1909.
Aristophanes splits the heavens with a jest, and the rays of truth stream down from inaccessible solitudes of speculation. He has no epigram, no cleverness, no derivative humor. He is bald foolery. And yet he conveys mysticism : he conveys divinity. He alone stands still while the whole empyrean of Greek life circles about him. —/. /. Chapman.
5
Arnold, Matthew. Poetical works. (Globe ed. ) Macmillan,
1907.
A defective ear, an uncertain choice and mastery of metre, yet often a lovely, unsought, unaffected music, always a tender, elegiac passion, a pure drawing and coloring of nature, a philosophic and scholarly aroma blended with exquisite delicacy of sentiment. —Sir Thomas Herbert Warren.
1
4 Aristophanes.
The Acharnians, and two other plays; tr. by J. H. Frere [1840] ; introd. by J. P. Maine. (Everyman)
8 POETRY AND POETS
6
Beowulf, The Story of ; tr. by Ernest J. B. Kirtlan into mod
ern English prose. Crowell, 1914.
The Anglo-Saxon hero-monster story. How the hero killed Grendel, the monster, and followed his horrible mother to her lair and how the Danes feasted and sang hero songs in King Hrothgar's hall.
7
Beowulf: a new translation for fireside and class room; by
William Ellery Leonard. Century, 1923.
8
Binyon, Laurence. Selected poems. Macmillan, 1922.
He is more the poet when he departs from everyday life to kingdoms of myth, mysticism or pure imagination. His poetry combines the qual ities of fine scholarship, cultivated taste, and a nature sensitive to the ideal of beauty. — Harold Williams.
9
Blake, William. Poetical works ; ed. by John Sampson. Ox
ford, 1905.
Nothing is pleasing to God except the glad invention of beautiful and exalted things. — William Blake.
10
Bridges, Robert. Poetical works, excluding the eight dramas. Oxford, 1912.
Each one of the shorter poems is a mosaic in beautiful word-pattern, each word chosen with perfect fitness to serve its double function of expressing thought and enhancing the melody of the whole. — Harold
Williams.
11
Brooke, Rupert. Collected poems; with introd. by G. E.
Woodberry and a biographical note by Margaret Lavington.
Dodd, 1915.
A genuine poet, with talent almost of the first if not of the very best order. —Springfield Republican.
12
Browning, Elizabeth Barrett. Complete poetical works.
(Cambridge ed. ) Houghton, 1900.
A pure singer with a lovely, lyric tenderness, the best poet of her sex since Sappho. . . . Her lyric mastery shines in many passages of her writings. — The winged horse.
13
Browning, Robert. Complete poetical works. (Globe ed.
Macmillan, 1915.
rev. )
14
THE CHOSEN POETS: TEXTS 9
Poems. (Gladstone ed. ) Crowell, n. d.
The significant thing about Browning is that he invaded still another province in the interests of poetry; he showed that the psychological analysis of motives underlying human conduct was full of dramatic possibilities. —Herbert Read.
15
Bulfinch, Thomas. The age of chivalry, or Legends of King
Arthur; enl. and rev. by E. E. Hale. Lothrop, 1858.
One of the earliest popular versions of the Arthur stories. It charmed many readers long before Sidney Lanier and Howard Pyle made their fascinating versions. It adds some stories told from the Mabinogion, legends sung by Welsh bards.
16
Burns, Robert. Poems, songs and letters; ed. by Alexander
Smith. (Globe ed. ) Macmillan, 1868. 17
Poems and songs; introd. by James Douglas. (Every man) Dutton, 1905.
Burns was bigger than any cause. He was bigger than a love fo:
his rollicking fun with pity and tenderness as only Chaucer and Shake speare among the other great poets have been able to do. . . . He died leaving poetry a different thing from what it had been when he found it. —The winged horse.
18
Byron, George Gordon Noel, Lord. Complete poetical works ;
liberty, or the love of his native Scotland
. . .
he had an understanding heart. This showed in his poetry about common men and animals. It showed in his humor, softening the sting of his keen satire and flavoring
with introductory memoir by Sir Leslie Stephen. Macmillan, 1907.
(Globe ed. )
His work and Shelley's, beyond that of all our other poets, recall or suggest the wide and high things of nature ; the large likeness of the elements ; the immeasurable liberty and stormy strength of waters and winds. —A. C. Swinburne.
19
20
Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Canterbury tales : the Prologue and four tales, with the Book of the Duchess and six lyrics; tr. into modern English verse by Frank Ernest Hill. Longmans, 1930.
He is a poet of taste, erudition and skill, a skilful versifier in his own right, and if it is necessary to translate Chaucer, his pen was a happy
Poetry of Byron; chosen and arranged by Matthew Arnold. Macmillan, 1881.
10 POETRY AND POETS
choice. He makes the lines run, as Chaucer did. He keeps the savor of the original. His poem is excellent modern verse. —H. S. Canby.
21
22
The combined work of a Chaucer scholar, and a poet. A charming and excellent piece of work. —Booklist.
23
24
Chaucer; ed. by H. N. McCracken.
A defective ear, an uncertain choice and mastery of metre, yet often a lovely, unsought, unaffected music, always a tender, elegiac passion, a pure drawing and coloring of nature, a philosophic and scholarly aroma blended with exquisite delicacy of sentiment. —Sir Thomas Herbert Warren.
1
4 Aristophanes.
The Acharnians, and two other plays; tr. by J. H. Frere [1840] ; introd. by J. P. Maine. (Everyman)
8 POETRY AND POETS
6
Beowulf, The Story of ; tr. by Ernest J. B. Kirtlan into mod
ern English prose. Crowell, 1914.
The Anglo-Saxon hero-monster story. How the hero killed Grendel, the monster, and followed his horrible mother to her lair and how the Danes feasted and sang hero songs in King Hrothgar's hall.
7
Beowulf: a new translation for fireside and class room; by
William Ellery Leonard. Century, 1923.
8
Binyon, Laurence. Selected poems. Macmillan, 1922.
He is more the poet when he departs from everyday life to kingdoms of myth, mysticism or pure imagination. His poetry combines the qual ities of fine scholarship, cultivated taste, and a nature sensitive to the ideal of beauty. — Harold Williams.
9
Blake, William. Poetical works ; ed. by John Sampson. Ox
ford, 1905.
Nothing is pleasing to God except the glad invention of beautiful and exalted things. — William Blake.
10
Bridges, Robert. Poetical works, excluding the eight dramas. Oxford, 1912.
Each one of the shorter poems is a mosaic in beautiful word-pattern, each word chosen with perfect fitness to serve its double function of expressing thought and enhancing the melody of the whole. — Harold
Williams.
11
Brooke, Rupert. Collected poems; with introd. by G. E.
Woodberry and a biographical note by Margaret Lavington.
Dodd, 1915.
A genuine poet, with talent almost of the first if not of the very best order. —Springfield Republican.
12
Browning, Elizabeth Barrett. Complete poetical works.
(Cambridge ed. ) Houghton, 1900.
A pure singer with a lovely, lyric tenderness, the best poet of her sex since Sappho. . . . Her lyric mastery shines in many passages of her writings. — The winged horse.
13
Browning, Robert. Complete poetical works. (Globe ed.
Macmillan, 1915.
rev. )
14
THE CHOSEN POETS: TEXTS 9
Poems. (Gladstone ed. ) Crowell, n. d.
The significant thing about Browning is that he invaded still another province in the interests of poetry; he showed that the psychological analysis of motives underlying human conduct was full of dramatic possibilities. —Herbert Read.
15
Bulfinch, Thomas. The age of chivalry, or Legends of King
Arthur; enl. and rev. by E. E. Hale. Lothrop, 1858.
One of the earliest popular versions of the Arthur stories. It charmed many readers long before Sidney Lanier and Howard Pyle made their fascinating versions. It adds some stories told from the Mabinogion, legends sung by Welsh bards.
16
Burns, Robert. Poems, songs and letters; ed. by Alexander
Smith. (Globe ed. ) Macmillan, 1868. 17
Poems and songs; introd. by James Douglas. (Every man) Dutton, 1905.
Burns was bigger than any cause. He was bigger than a love fo:
his rollicking fun with pity and tenderness as only Chaucer and Shake speare among the other great poets have been able to do. . . . He died leaving poetry a different thing from what it had been when he found it. —The winged horse.
18
Byron, George Gordon Noel, Lord. Complete poetical works ;
liberty, or the love of his native Scotland
. . .
he had an understanding heart. This showed in his poetry about common men and animals. It showed in his humor, softening the sting of his keen satire and flavoring
with introductory memoir by Sir Leslie Stephen. Macmillan, 1907.
(Globe ed. )
His work and Shelley's, beyond that of all our other poets, recall or suggest the wide and high things of nature ; the large likeness of the elements ; the immeasurable liberty and stormy strength of waters and winds. —A. C. Swinburne.
19
20
Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Canterbury tales : the Prologue and four tales, with the Book of the Duchess and six lyrics; tr. into modern English verse by Frank Ernest Hill. Longmans, 1930.
He is a poet of taste, erudition and skill, a skilful versifier in his own right, and if it is necessary to translate Chaucer, his pen was a happy
Poetry of Byron; chosen and arranged by Matthew Arnold. Macmillan, 1881.
10 POETRY AND POETS
choice. He makes the lines run, as Chaucer did. He keeps the savor of the original. His poem is excellent modern verse. —H. S. Canby.
21
22
The combined work of a Chaucer scholar, and a poet. A charming and excellent piece of work. —Booklist.
23
24
Chaucer; ed. by H. N. McCracken. Yale, 1913.
Modern reader's Chaucer ; the complete poetical works,
now first put into modern English by J. S. P. Tatlock and
Percy Mackaye. Macmillan, 1912.
Selections from Chaucer; ed. by W. A. Neilson and H. R. Patch. Harcourt, 1921.
Student's Chaucer ; ed. by the Rev. W. W. Skeat, with
a glossary. Oxford.
. . . he will impart some of the power and delicacy of his own vision,. If [the reader] will only stay long and travel [far] he may learn to see with
Chaucer's eyes. That would be to create for himself some such world as Chaucer's —a world of high ideals, but of large tolerance, of frank masculine humor, but of the most perfect delicacy of feeling. —Sir Henry Newbolt.
25
Chesterton, Gilbert Keith. Ballad of the White Horse. Lane, 1911.
It was a convincing stroke of imagination to tell Alfred's story on the background of that gigantic, prehistoric carving which in White Horse Vale rides like a phantom across the landscape. Heretofore Alfred and his legend have received but a pale and unconvincing treatment in Eng lish poetry. Mr. Chesterton makes him real and magnetic. —Richard Le Gallienne.
26
Church, Alfred John. Heroes of chivalry and romance. Macmillan, 1898.
A simple, vivid telling of the story of Beowulf, of the story of King Arthur and the Round Table, and of the Nibelung Treasure, the Rhine- gold.
27
If [Chaucer] is read largely and with understanding
The Iliad for boys and girls; told from Homer in simple language. Macmillan, 1907.
Dignified, simple, interesting.
THE CHOSEN POETS: TEXTS 11
28
Tells very simply of the homing journey of Ulysses, with the various calls on the way on Cyclops and Circe and other wonders, and of final peace in Ithaca.
29
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. Poems ; with an introd. by E. H.
Coleridge. Lane, 1907.
Shelley, you feel, sings like a bird ; Blake, like a child or an angel ; but Coleridge certainly writes music. —Arthur Symons.
30
Colum, Padraic. The adventures of Ulysses and the tale of
Troy, or The children's Homer. Macmillan, 1918.
The story of both the Iliad and the Odyssey told in beautiful, simple, vigorous, rhythmic prose. — Realms of gold.
31
Cowper, William. Poetical works; ed. by William Benham.
The Odyssey for boys and girls, told from Homer. Macmillan, 1906.
Macmillan, 1893.
We read Cowper . . . for his love of nature and his faithful render
(Globe ed. )
ing of her beauty . . . for his humor, for his pathos
choly interest of his life, and for the simplicity and loveliness of his character. — Thomas Humphry Ward.
32
D. , H. (Hilda Doolittle). Collected poems of H. D. Liveright, 1925.
She has written the most exquisite verse of the imagist type. .