The Young Idea; An Anthology of Opinion Concerning the Spirit and Aims of Contemporary American Literature

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1917. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... Mr. Vachel Lindsay was among the vanguard of the prophets of revolt in our poetry. His "Adventures While Preaching the Gospel of Beauty," a record of his vagabond journey through the Middle West, records his faith in the influence of poetry upon the common man, a faith which he has put to the test of proof. He says: There is a wave of interest in verse going across the country. America is beginning to professionalize, institutionalize and nationalize a new group of laureates. The Century Magazine for March, 1916, said: "There are one hundred poets in America today, excellent craftsmen, vivid adventurers, known and unknown." Some of these people have been writing for a generation. The public, however, refused until today to read any of their books. Only one excuse was offered. The verse of these poets was not "great." It was a particularly cruel and unreasonable standard, when applied to the village poet. His rhyme was sometimes printed by the most fastidious magazines. That should have been enough for a standing in the hometown. Certainly it was not required of the young fellow with a law school education that he have ten years of emenince as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court before he be trusted with the local legal business. Yet many of the hundred who are now emerging were these village poets, hung, drawn and quartered by the Christian Endeavor Society, the Y. M. C. A., the Labor Union and the Country Club alike, because, as it was implied, they could not prove themselves Homer, Shakespeare, Milton and Whitman combined. But the real reason of the taboo was that the tyrannous majorities disliked all poetry. There were two causes for this. First: American fidgits. Second: the way verse was taught in the public schools of the last generation. The teachers did n...