"UNACKNOWLEDGED LEGISLATORS" [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] &a,-Shelley Claimed
that poets are the unacknowledged legislatorit of the world. Your Contemporary Sir Henry New-
bolt has pointed out that in poetry all great movements begin, that in it is found the germ of evolution. Believing this, we in America are taking some practical steps to knock “ un " out of Shelley's phrase and I am responsible for promoting a Bill in Congress to obtain official recognition for a proposal that has been widely taken up that a number of fellowships— not scholarships—shall be provided for competition among.
the younger generation of poets, to enable several each year to have two thousand dollars each at their disposal, not as pensions, but that they may travel and come into contact with the greater world from which circumstances may other- wise bar them. Members of the Federation of Women's Clubs—a powerful organization in the States—are subscribing a dollar per head which will provide a very substantial nucleus for this fund and enable Congress, which would not otherwise provide the money, to take over the administration—a step that, in itself, you will realize, is significant.
May I, as one intimately concerned with this matter and devoted in a practical way to the best interests of poetry, suggest the adoption by Great Britain of a similar scheme ?
You do things somewhat differently in the Old Country and you have no associated women's clubs to solve the financial difficulties so simply and easily. But you have wealthy patrons of letters to whom the scheme will appeal : you already have something similar in the Kahn Travelling Fellowships for other intellectual workers—and you have the machinery for administration in the Incorporated Poetry Society, with which it has been my privilege to work in America and from which
I have derived the inspiration and support and official status for furthering the cause of poetry in the United States.— I
am, Sir, &c.,
AMERICAN Burton, The Poetry Review.
Park Lane Hotel, W. 1.
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