Chapter I: Front Matter

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MODERN BRITISH POETRY

EDITED BY LOUIS UNTERMEYER

Author of "_Challenge_," "_Including Horace_," "_Modern American Poetry_," etc.

NEW YORK

HARCOURT, BRACE & COMPANY

COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY HARCOURT, BRACE AND HOWE, INC.

PRINTED IN THE U. S. A. BY THE QUINN & BODEN COMPANY RAHWAY, N. J.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

For permission to reprint the material in this volume, the editor wishes, first of all, to acknowledge his debt to those poets whose co-operation has been of such assistance not only in finally determining upon the choice of their poems, but in collecting dates, biographical data, etc. Secondly, he wishes to thank the publishers, most of whom are holders of the copyrights. The latter indebtedness is specifically acknowledged to:

DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY and A. P. WATT & SON--

For "The Return" from _The Five Nations_ and for "An
Astrologer's Song" from _Rewards and Fairies_ by Rudyard
Kipling. Thanks also are due to Mr. Kipling himself for
personal permission to reprint these poems.

DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY and MARTIN SECKER--

For the poem from _Collected Poems_ by James Elroy Flecker.

E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY--

For the poems from _The Old Huntsman_, _Counter-Attack_ and
_Picture Show_ by Siegfried Sassoon.

FOUR SEAS COMPANY--

For poems from _War and Love_ by Richard Aldington and _The
Mountainy Singer_ by Seosamh MacCathmhaoil (Joseph
Campbell).

HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY--

For poems from _Peacock Pie_ and _The Listeners_ by Walter
de la Mare and _Poems_ by Edward Thomas.

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY--

For two poems from _Poems, 1908-1919_, by John Drinkwater,
both of which are used by permission of, and by special
arrangement with, Houghton Mifflin Company, the authorized
publishers.

B. W. HUEBSCH--

For the selections from _Chamber Music_ by James Joyce,
_Songs to Save a Soul_ and _Before Dawn_ by Irene
Rutherford McLeod, _Amores, Look! We Have Come Through!_,
and _New Poems_ by D. H. Lawrence.

ALFRED A. KNOPF--

For poems from _The Collected Poems of William H. Davies_,
_Fairies and Fusiliers_ by Robert Graves, _The Queen of
China and Other Poems_ by Edward Shanks, and _Poems: First
Series_ by J. C. Squire.

JOHN LANE COMPANY--

For the selections from _Poems_ by G. K. Chesterton,
_Ballads and Songs_ by John Davidson, _The Collected Poems
of Rupert Brooke_, _Admirals All_ by Henry Newbolt, _Herod_
and _Lyrics and Dramas_ by Stephen Phillips, _The Hope of
the World and Other Poems_ by William Watson, and _In Cap
and Bells_ by Owen Seaman.

THE LONDON MERCURY--

For "Going and Staying" by Thomas Hardy and "The House That
Was" by Laurence Binyon.

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY--

For the selections from _Fires_ and _Borderlands and
Thoroughfares_ by Wilfrid Wilson Gibson, _Poems_ by Ralph
Hodgson, the sonnet from _Good Friday and Other Poems_ by
John Masefield, and the passage (entitled in this volume
"Rounding the Horn") from "Dauber" in _The Story of a
Round-House_ by John Masefield.

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS--

For the title poem from _In Flanders Fields_ by John McCrae.

THE POETRY BOOKSHOP (England)--

For two excerpts from _Strange Meetings_ by Harold Monro and
for the poems from the biennial anthologies, _Georgian
Poetry_.

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS--

For the quotations from _Poems_ by William Ernest Henley.

FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY--

For the poem from _Ardours and Endurances_ by Robert
Nichols.

LONGMANS, GREEN & CO., as the representatives of B. H.
BLACKWELL, of Oxford--

For a poem by Edith Sitwell from _The Mother_.

CONTENTS

PAGE

INTRODUCTORY xi

THOMAS HARDY (1840- )
In Time of "The Breaking of Nations" 3
Going and Staying 4
The Man He Killed 4

ROBERT BRIDGES (1844- )
Winter Nightfall 5
Nightingales 7

ARTHUR O'SHAUGHNESSY (1844-1881)
Ode 8

WILLIAM ERNEST HENLEY (1849-1903)
Invictus 10
The Blackbird 10
A Bowl of Roses 11
Before 11
Margaritae Sorori 12

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON (1850-1894)
Summer Sun 13
Winter-Time 14
Romance 15
Requiem 16

ALICE MEYNELL (1850- )
A Thrush Before Dawn 16

FIONA MACLEOD (_William Sharp_) (1855-1905)
The Valley of Silence 18
The Vision 19

OSCAR WILDE (1856-1900)
Requiescat 20
Impression du Matin 21

JOHN DAVIDSON (1857-1909)
A Ballad of Hell 22
Imagination 26

WILLIAM WATSON (1858- )
Ode in May 28
Estrangement 30
Song 31

FRANCIS THOMPSON (1859-1907)
Daisy 32
To Olivia 34
An Arab Love-Song 35

A. E. HOUSMAN (1859- )
Reveille 36
When I Was One-and-Twenty 37
With Rue My Heart is Laden 38
To An Athlete Dying Young 38
"Loveliest of Trees" 39

DOUGLAS HYDE (1860- )
I Shall Not Die for Thee 40

AMY LEVY (1861-1889)
Epitaph 42
In the Mile End Road 42

KATHARINE TYNAN HINKSON (1861- )
Sheep and Lambs 43
All-Souls 44

OWEN SEAMAN (1861- )
To An Old Fogey 45
Thomas of the Light Heart 47

HENRY NEWBOLT (1862- )
Drake's Drum 49

ARTHUR SYMONS (1865- )
In the Wood of Finvara 50
Modern Beauty 51

WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS (1865- )
The Lake Isle of Innisfree 53
The Song of the Old Mother 53
The Cap and Bells 54
An Old Song Resung 55

RUDYARD KIPLING (1865- )
Gunga Din 57
The Return 61
The Conundrum of the Workshops 63
An Astrologer's Song 66

RICHARD LE GALLIENNE (1866- )
A Ballad of London 69
Regret 70

LIONEL JOHNSON (1867-1902)
Mystic and Cavalier 71
To a Traveller 73

ERNEST DOWSON (1867-1900)
To One in Bedlam 74
You Would Have Understood Me 75

"A. E." (_George William Russell_) (1867- )
The Great Breath 76
The Unknown God 77

STEPHEN PHILLIPS (1868-1915)
Fragment from "Herod" 78
Beautiful Lie the Dead 78
A Dream 79

LAURENCE BINYON (1869- )
A Song 79
The House That Was 80

ALFRED DOUGLAS (1870- )
The Green River 81

T. STURGE MOORE (1870- )
The Dying Swan 82
Silence Sings 82

WILLIAM H. DAVIES (1870- )
Days Too Short 84
The Moon 85
The Villain 85
The Example 86

HILAIRE BELLOC (1870- )
The South Country 87

ANTHONY C. DEANE (1870- )
The Ballad of the _Billycock_ 90
A Rustic Song 92

J. M. SYNGE (1871-1909)
Beg-Innish 95
A Translation from Petrarch 96
To the Oaks of Glencree 96

NORA HOPPER CHESSON (1871-1906)
A Connaught Lament 97

EVA GORE-BOOTH (1872- )
The Waves of Breffny 98
Walls 99

MOIRA O'NEILL
A Broken Song 99
Beauty's a Flower 100

JOHN MCCRAE (1872-1918)
In Flanders Fields 101

FORD MADOX HUEFFER (1873- )
Clair de Lune 102
There Shall Be More Joy 104

WALTER DE LA MARE (1873- )
The Listeners 106
An Epitaph 107
Tired Tim 108
Old Susan 108
Nod 109

G. K. CHESTERTON (1874- )
Lepanto 111
A Prayer in Darkness 118
The Donkey 119

WILFRID WILSON GIBSON (1878- )
Prelude 120
The Stone 121
Sight 124

JOHN MASEFIELD (1878- )
A Consecration 126
Sea-Fever 127
Rounding the Horn 128
The Choice 131
Sonnet 132

LORD DUNSANY (1878- )
Songs from an Evil Wood 133

EDWARD THOMAS (1878-1917)
If I Should Ever By Chance 136
Tall Nettles 137
Fifty Faggots 137
Cock-Crow 138

SEUMAS O'SULLIVAN (1879- )
Praise 139

RALPH HODGSON
Eve 140
Time, You Old Gipsy Man 142
The Birdcatcher 144
The Mystery 144

HAROLD MONRO (1879- )
The Nightingale Near the House 145
Every Thing 146
Strange Meetings 149

T. M. KETTLE (1880-1916)
To My Daughter Betty, The Gift of God 150

ALFRED NOYES (1880- )
Sherwood 151
The Barrel-Organ 154
Epilogue 161

PADRAIC COLUM (1881- )
The Plougher 162
An Old Woman of the Roads 164

JOSEPH CAMPBELL (_Seosamh MacCathmhaoil_) (1881- )
I Am the Mountainy Singer 165
The Old Woman 166

JAMES STEPHENS (1882- )
The Shell 167
What Tomas An Buile Said In a Pub 168
To the Four Courts, Please 169

JOHN DRINKWATER (1882- )
Reciprocity 170
A Town Window 170

JAMES JOYCE (1882- )
I Hear an Army 171

J. C. SQUIRE (1884- )
A House 172

LASCELLES ABERCROMBIE (1884- )
From "Vashti" 175
Song 176

JAMES ELROY FLECKER (1884-1915)
The Old Ships 178