The " Everyman " Anthology
Poems of Our Time, 1940-1942. Chosen by Richard Church and M. M. Bozman. (Everyman Library. Dent. 3s.)
EVERY addition to the excellent Everyman Library is certain of a very with sale. In addition, an authoritative anthology of the poetry of this century is needed W. B. Yeats's choice for the Oxford University Press is perhaps too eclectic to stand as a comprehensive selection, though it has many merits—in particular the stamp of Yeats's own personal preferences—and the- selection made for the World's Classic series is inadequate. The present anthologers have tried to be too comprehensive (though Edward Thompson is en- tirely omitted), and as a result have included a vast amount of less than mediocre verse. This might have been understandable if the selection had been made solely from the point of view of a social document, but Mr. Church in his introduction insists that each poet
is represented " in his absolute right." By what " absolute rip, one wonders, are poems such as those chosen from Mervyn Pe E. N. da Costa Andrade, F. L. Lucas, Eiluned Lewis, Richard Ma field, Thomas Moult, Jan Struther included? Some of these wri will be as surprised to find themselves, one imagines, represent here as the reader is to meet them. Of accepted poets, W. B. Yea leads the field with seventeen poems followed by W. H. Davies w fifteen poems ; but unfortunately they are all chosen from amo Davies's short, whimsical, over-anthologised pieces which ha turned so many people from reading him until some lucky accid has forced his Collected Poems on their notice, and they have d' covered for themselves whit range and power he has.
De la Mare, W. J. Turner, Edward Thomas, Hardy, Andrew You are here with seven or eight poems apiece. It is misleading give nothing of W. J. Turner later than 1936, and even more In leading to acknowledge his poems to Collected Poems, Sidgwick Jackson, when they come from Selected Poems published by 011.j.P. ; Miss Sitwell's poems from Street Song are acknowledged Faber and Faber, although Macmillan published them ; Lawrence does not spell her name Freda. Detailed acknowledg ments are very useful to poet, reader and publisher, but only if di are accurate. Choice of immediately contemporary poems is alwa the most debatable ground. Sidney Keyes is well represented, one misses Alun Lewis, Alan Rook, Lawrence Durrell, Ver Watkins and others. Perhaps James Stephens is best served in anthology and Dorothy Wellesley worst served with one late a not very good poem. The poems are grouped roughly in chron logical order, their sequence finally determined by their tone a spirit, and some of the resulting juxtapositions are well contriv
SHEILA SHANNON.
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