Winged Words
Eight Oxford Poets. Edited by Michael Meyer and Sidney Keyes. (George Routledge. 2S. 6d.) ANTHOLOGIES should be selective rather than exhaustive ; they should have some definite theme, sequence or temporal unity, and the selection should bear the stamp of personal predilection.
Wings—An Anthology of Flight is an admirable anthology of prose and verse, full of entertaining, interesting and varied reading. The contents table is impressive, indeed, formidable. There is—as might be hoped—Ezekiel, Milton, Leonardo da Vinci, Jules Verne ; but what could Dr. Johnson have said on flying? or Thomas Ingoldsby? or Horace Walpole? How did Bleriot describe his first cross-Channel flight? It is all here among fascinating extracts from The Aerial Voyage of Kai Kaoos, King of Persia, and from Cyrano de Bergerac. In 167o Francesco Lana Terzi wrote: " For who sees not, that no City can be secure against attack since our [Airlship may at any time be placed. directly over it, and descending down may discharge Souldiers; the same would happen to private Houses, and Ships on the Sea . . ."
It is curious that men should foresee events nearly three hundred years ahead so much more accurately than events a mere three years distant. From very early times thinkers and scientists realised that man's welfare would be as much imperilled as advantaged by the discovery of flight. It is noticeable in the later section of the anthology that the imaginative approach is more successful than the narrative—although the purely docu- mentary account has its own value and interest—and this best be seen by contrasting the two methods, as in W. J. Turner' Aeroplanes and Jeffery Day's On the Wings of the Morning.
An excellent section on balloons and early balloonists includ an account of an Equestrian Ascent in Vauxhall Gardens in 18 Rider and horse descended on Bromley Common " without slightest injury to himself or the pony, who, the moment he fe liberated, took advantage of his situation, and enjoyed him most luxuriously among the clover, which he devoured wi every appearance of a keen appetite, although he had eaten mo than a pint of beans while in the air." Another interesting ite is a sceptical article on Count Zeppelin's activities from 7' Spectator of July, two. The latter part of the book ten to poetry and narrative accounts, and here one wishes that th editor had been a little more exacting. Too many of the are hackneyed in sentiment and banal in expression.
Mr. T. S. Eliot has written an introduction to Mrs. Ridler' book of modern verse, and in defining its aim he implies it should serve rather as a chart of contemporary poetry " provide an illustration of the various styles of poetry which generally acknowledged to be ' modern.' " One rather wish there were an introduction by Mrs. Ridler herself—she mu know, even better than Mr. Eliot, the motives for her choic The anthology bears the stamp of individuality, but because selections are entirely satisfactory only to the chooser, it wo be better to stick to the title on the wrapper, A Little Book Modern Verse, rather than that on the title-page, The Little Bo of Modern Verse. On the whole, the few selections fr the work of each author are well made ; they represent th author fairly, but they are not usually the obvious choice. Yea and Hopkins are rightly included in this anthology, and, inde it is astonishing to see how wide and penetrating their influen has been. Hopkins gave to every succeeding poet who want it a new sense of language, but the time is overdue for influence to be more thoroughly assimilated. Often the imitati is too facile. Hopkins developed his medium to suit his p ticular genius, and to give expression to his sincere and not eas articulate, passion. Too many of his successors have taken medium ready-made, and clever and adept as they are, use well enough, but they lack that deeper passion, that pm of attention, that slow-burning and enduring fire. The poets our age tend to be obscure for effect, to choose symbol a image for mere whim. So in Dylan Thomas's After the Funer there is -real quality, but the symbols of the fox and the fern a nothing because they are unconvincingly used, and give the elf —perhaps wrongly—that they have been superimposed on poem.
Lyrical and musical qualities are very rare among these poets they seem afraid of taking any guidance from their senses ; th are inclined to great solemnity (Charles Madge is portentous vrI his mermaid), and it is too rare a pleasure to come across fresh, invigorating verse of W. R. Rodgers, or the fine hn in F. T. Prince's " At a Parade."
In Poems from the Forces one gets right away from poetry of the intellect. The writers for the most part content with simple themes—absence, death, battles, pa memories. The poor quality of some poems does not destr the general impression that for the most part they are watt from the heart to give expression to the mood of the mome with a direct unpretentiousness and simplicity. The styles as mixed as the themes from popular song and ballad to sonn. and blank verse. Some names stand out, though none in startl prominence. Laurence Whistler writes a good ballad, J Waller has an individual style, Alan Rook a promising I gift, Alun Lewis has real quality in his work, and so Christopher Hasall. This anthology has real merit, but it vio be much better without the preface by Colonel Elliot or introduction by Keidrych Rhys, which is largely given to private feuds better conducted through the post than the Press.
Finally, the Eight Oxford Poets—who would also be without the pompous introduction. Why must poets belong groups or schools which always quarrel with all the other POU or schools? One can only suppose it is a form of advertisema "The best products are sold by name." There is some talent among these eight young poets, however. How much. it is enduring is hard to tell since so many young and sellso writers have but a single early poetic flowering, and then to business or journalism—partly through economic pressure,
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