"English poetry is in a strange growth.
Literary Renaissance, and yet it is 8 very unsatisfactory Renaissance. We can say with confidence that never in the history of English Literature have there been so many noticeably good poets (not even during the Elizabethan Age) and never turing any fertile time have there existed so few really first rate ones that we know about," writes Mr. Herbert E. Palmer in "Vox Studentium."
"The poets have forgotten the people, and the people have forgotten the poets. The poets, impatient of a commercial Age's neglect of them, ists, mere ertigis, academiggs and cultured singers with senM@ilities and experiences apart; while the people, impatient with the proud and erring have ceased buying their On the side of the People, the commercial spirit its worst, whilst on the poets there has been another kind of sliding into the abyss, ai not so different in kind as might at first appear.
"Poetry has, in fact, become a sort of ship for floating nov and journalists, and for improving Changing the figure has become a means When, (which is very frequent) he-aspires to become a critic. He must make living; he must even sell himself; and he thinks of his reputation in verse in the same way as a professional man thinks of his university degree, for it furnishes him with the insignia of power.
"Popular poets in the sense that Butns and Crabbe were popular Poets seem quite impossible to-day.
"In conclusion T would say that until there has been a little straight talking on the subject there will be marked improvement. Cut will continue to encourage the we et and non-committal "poets, and overlook the more plangent' lyres, the strong and radical singers. Our literary combines and coteries are so afraid of straight talk ing that they have deliberately hid-tien their heads behind the Old Augustan Banner of Good Taste. They tell us that poets must write in good taste, and critics must talk about them in good taste. Soon we shall have thothing left to us save the dull, the correct, the psychlosical, the unimpassioned, the cynical, the non-religious, the pretty, and the decorous."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.