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Abraham Myerson - "Project Gutenberg surfs with a modem donated by Supra."

Xenophon - "The Memorabilia"

Robert Louis Stevenson - "Songs of Travel and Other Verses"

Arthur Conan Doyle - "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes"

The Little Book of Modern Verse

J >> Jessie B. Rittenhouse >> The Little Book of Modern Verse




I hear the winds of autumn sigh,
They break my heart, they make me cry;
I hear the birds of lovely spring,
My hopes revive, I help them sing.
Why do I sing? Why do I cry?
It lies so deep, I know not why.




Winter Sleep. [Edith M. Thomas]



I know it must be winter (though I sleep) --
I know it must be winter, for I dream
I dip my bare feet in the running stream,
And flowers are many, and the grass grows deep.

I know I must be old (how age deceives!)
I know I must be old, for, all unseen,
My heart grows young, as autumn fields grow green,
When late rains patter on the falling sheaves.

I know I must be tired (and tired souls err) --
I know I must be tired, for all my soul
To deeds of daring beats a glad, faint roll,
As storms the riven pine to music stir.

I know I must be dying (Death draws near) --
I know I must be dying, for I crave
Life -- life, strong life, and think not of the grave,
And turf-bound silence, in the frosty year.




Tryste Noel. [Louise Imogen Guiney]



The Ox he openeth wide the Doore,
And from the Snowe he calls her inne,
And he hath seen her Smile therefor,
Our Ladye without Sinne.
Now soon from Sleep
A Starre shall leap,
And soone arrive both King and Hinde:
~Amen, Amen:~
But O, the Place co'd I but finde!

The Ox hath hush'd his voyce and bent
Trewe eyes of Pitty ore the Mow,
And on his lovelie Neck, forspent,
The Blessed layes her Browe.
Around her feet
Full Warme and Sweete
His bowerie Breath doth meeklie dwell:
~Amen, Amen:~
But sore am I with Vaine Travel!

The Ox is host in Judah stall
And Host of more than onelie one.
For close she gathereth withal
Our Lorde her littel Sonne.
Glad Hinde and King
Their Gyfte may bring,
But wo'd to-night my Teares were there,
~Amen, Amen:~
Between her Bosom and His hayre!




Hora Christi. [Alice Brown]



Sweet is the time for joyous folk
Of gifts and minstrelsy;
Yet I, O lowly-hearted One,
Crave but Thy company.
On lonesome road, beset with dread,
My questing lies afar.
I have no light, save in the east
The gleaming of Thy star.

In cloistered aisles they keep to-day
Thy feast, O living Lord!
With pomp of banner, pride of song,
And stately sounding word.
Mute stand the kings of power and place,
While priests of holy mind
Dispense Thy blessed heritage
Of peace to all mankind.

I know a spot where budless twigs
Are bare above the snow,
And where sweet winter-loving birds
Flit softly to and fro;
There with the sun for altar-fire,
The earth for kneeling-place,
The gentle air for chorister,
Will I adore Thy face.

Loud, underneath the great blue sky,
My heart shall paean sing,
The gold and myrrh of meekest love
Mine only offering.
Bliss of Thy birth shall quicken me;
And for Thy pain and dole
Tears are but vain, so I will keep
The silence of the soul.




A Parting Guest. [James Whitcomb Riley]



What delightful hosts are they --
Life and Love!
Lingeringly I turn away,
This late hour, yet glad enough
They have not withheld from me
Their high hospitality.
So, with face lit with delight
And all gratitude, I stay
Yet to press their hands and say,
"Thanks. -- So fine a time! Good night."





====





Biographical Notes

[The format of these notes has been slightly altered. Most notably,
dates (hopefully correct, but not very certain for the lesser known poets)
have been added -- when available -- in square brackets after each name,
and the number of poems by that author in this anthology is in parentheses.
These notes (first included in 1917, whereas the selections were made in 1913)
combined with the searchability of electronic texts,
renders the original Indexes of Authors and of First Lines obsolete,
and so both have been dropped. Occasionally, further information follows
in angled brackets. -- A. L., 1998.]



Barker, Elsa. [1869-1954] (2)
Born at Leicester, Vermont. Received her early education in that State.
After a short period of teaching, she became a newspaper writer
and contributed to various periodicals and syndicates.
Her journalistic period closed with editorial work upon "Hampton's Magazine"
in 1909 and 1910. Since that date she has published several books
in different fields of literature: "The Son of Mary Bethel",
a novel, putting the character of Christ in modern setting; "Stories from
the New Testament, for Children"; "Letters of a Living Dead Man",
psychic communications which have attracted much attention;
and in poetry, "The Frozen Grail, and Other Poems", 1910;
"The Book of Love", 1912; and "Songs of a Vagrom Angel", 1916.
Mrs. Barker's poem, "The Frozen Grail", addressed to Peary, the explorer,
did much, as he has testified, to inspire him, and was upon his person
when he finally achieved the North Pole.

Braithwaite, William Stanley. [1878-1962] (1)
Born at Boston, December 6, 1878. Educated in the public schools
of that city. He has published two volumes of his own verse,
"Lyrics of Life and Love", 1904, and "The House of Falling Leaves", 1908,
but has given his time chiefly to editorial and critical work.
Mr. Braithwaite edited three excellent anthologies:
"The Book of Elizabethan Verse", "The Book of Restoration Verse",
and "The Book of Georgian Verse", but has turned his entire attention,
for several years past, to contemporary American poetry,
having founded and edited "The Poetry Journal of Boston",
"The Poetry Review of America", etc. Mr. Braithwaite summarizes each year
for the "Boston Transcript" the poetic output of the American magazines,
and publishes, in an "Anthology of Magazine Verse", what he regards
as the best poems printed in our periodicals during the year.

Branch, Anna Hempstead. [1875-1937] (3)
Born at Hempstead House, New London, Connecticut. Graduated from
Smith College in 1897 and from the American Academy of Dramatic Art
in New York City in 1900. While at college she began writing poetry,
and the year after her graduation won the first prize awarded
by the "Century Magazine" for a poem written by a college graduate.
This poem, "The Road 'Twixt Heaven and Hell", was printed in
the "Century Magazine" for December, 1898, and was followed soon after by
the publication of Miss Branch's first volume, "The Heart of the Road", 1901.
She has since published two volumes, "The Shoes that Danced", 1902,
and "Rose of the Wind", 1910, both marked by imagination and beauty
of a high order.

Brown, Alice. [1857-1948] (3)
Born at Hampton Falls, New Hampshire, December 5, 1857.
Educated at Robinson Seminary, Exeter. She is chiefly known as a novelist,
having written with great art of the life of New England. Among her
best-known volumes are "Meadow Grass", a collection of short stories;
"Tiverton Tales"; "The Mannerings"; "Margaret Warrener"; "Rose MacLeod";
"My Love and I", etc. In 1915 Miss Brown received a prize of $10,000,
given by Winthrop Ames, for the best play submitted to him
by an American writer. This drama, "Children of Earth",
was produced the following season at the Booth Theater in New York.
In poetry Miss Brown has done but one volume, "The Road to Castaly", 1896,
reprinted with new poems in 1917, but this is so fine in quality
as to give her a distinct place among American poets.

Burton, Richard. [1861-1940] (3)
Born at Hartford, Connecticut, March 14, 1859 [sic]. Received the degree
of A.B. from Trinity College in 1883 and of Ph.D. from John Hopkins University
in 1888. He entered journalism and became for a short time
managing editor of "The Churchman", leaving this position to become
literary editor of the "Hartford Courant", where he remained
from 1890 to 1897. During this period he was also associate editor
of the "Warner Library of the World's Best Literature". In 1902
he went to Boston as literary editor of the Lothrop Publishing Company,
remaining until 1904. Previous to this time, Dr. Burton had been
lecturing widely upon poetry and the drama and spent the succeeding two years
chiefly engaged in this work. In 1906 he became the head
of the English Department of the University of Minnesota,
which position he still holds, although the scholastic year
is broken annually by a lecture tour through the East.
Dr. Burton has published many volumes of poetry and several upon the drama.
Among the former one may cite as most representative: "Dumb in June", 1895;
"Lyrics of Brotherhood", 1899; "Message and Melody", 1903;
"Rahab: A Poetic Drama", 1906; "From the Book of Life", 1909;
and "A Midsummer Memory", an elegy upon the untimely death
of Arthur Upson, 1910.

Bynner, Witter. [1881-1968] (3)
Born at Brooklyn, New York, August 10, 1881. Graduated at Harvard University
in 1902. After his graduation he became assistant editor
of "McClure's Magazine" and literary editor of McClure, Phillips & Company
until 1906. Since that period he has devoted himself chiefly
to the writing of poetry and poetic drama. His first volume,
"An Ode to Harvard, and Other Poems", was published in 1907.
This has been followed by the poetic dramas, "Tiger", 1913,
and "The Little King", 1917, both of which have had stage presentation,
and by "The New World", 1915, amplified from his Phi Beta Kappa Poem
delivered at Harvard in 1911.

Carman, Bliss. [1861-1929] (4)
Although so long a resident of America that he belongs among our poets,
Bliss Carman was born at Fredericton, New Brunswick, April 15, 1861.
He received the degree of A.B. from the University of New Brunswick in 1881
and of A.M. in 1884. He studied also at Harvard and at
the University of Edinburgh. Like most poets, Mr. Carman served his period
in journalism, being office editor of "The Independent" from 1890 to 1892,
and editor of "The Chap-Book" in 1894. He has, however,
given almost his sole allegiance to poetry and has published many books,
chiefly of nature, interspersed now and then with volumes dealing with
myth or mysticism. His first volume was "Low Tide on Grand Pre",
which appeared in 1893, and revealed at the outset his remarkable lyric gift
and his sensitive feeling for nature. In collaboration with Richard Hovey
he did the well-known "Vagabondia Books", -- "Songs from Vagabondia", 1894;
"More Songs from Vagabondia", 1896; and "Last Songs from Vagabondia", 1900, --
which introduced a new note into American poetry, and appearing, as they did,
in the nineties, formed a wholesome contrast to some of the work
then emanating from the "Decadent School" in England.
Among the finest of Mr. Carman's volumes, aside from his work
with Richard Hovey, are "Behind the Arras: A Book of the Unseen", 1895;
"Ballads of Lost Haven", 1897; "By the Aurelian Wall, and Other Elegies",
1899; "The Green Book of the Bards", 1898; "Pipes of Pan", 5 volumes,
first number in 1902; "Sappho: One Hundred Lyrics", 1903.
Among his later books may be cited "Echoes from Vagabondia", 1912,
and "April Airs", 1916.

Cather, Willa Sibert. [1873-1947] (1)
Born at Winchester, Virginia, December 7, 1875 [sic]. During her childhood
the family moved to Nebraska, and in 1895 Miss Cather was graduated from
the University of that State. Coming East to engage in newspaper work,
she became associated with the staff of the "Pittsburgh Daily Leader",
where she remained from 1897 to 1901. Soon after, she became
one of the editors of "McClure's Magazine", doing important feature articles
until 1912. Miss Cather is now writing fiction, and has published
three novels, "Alexander's Bridge", "O Pioneers!" and "The Song of the Lark".
In poetry, she has done but one small volume, "April Twilight", 1903,
but several poems from this collection seem likely to make for themselves
a permanent place.

Cawein, Madison. [1865-1914] (3)
Born at Louisville, Kentucky, March 23, 1865. Educated in the public schools
of that city. He began writing very early and published his first
book of verse, "Blooms of the Berry", 1887, when but twenty-two years of age.
From that time until his death, December 7, 1915 [sic],
he published many volumes of poetry inspired chiefly by the theme of nature.
As most of these volumes are out of print, it is unnecessary to list them all,
but among the more important may be cited: "Intimations of the Beautiful",
1894; "Undertones", 1896; "The Garden of Dreams", 1896;
"Myth and Romance", 1899; "Weeds by the Wall", 1901;
"Kentucky Poems", with an Introduction by Edmund Gosse, London, 1902;
"A Voice on the Wind", 1902; "The Vale of Tempe", 1905;
"Complete Poetical Works", 5 volumes, 1907; "New Poems", London, 1909;
"Poems -- A Selection from the Complete Work", 1911;
"The Poet, the Fool, and the Fairies", 1912; "Minions of the Moon", 1913;
"The Poet and Nature", 1914; and "The Cup of Comus", posthumous publication,
1915. Mr. Cawein was distinctly the creator of his own field.
From the publication of his first little volume, "Blooms of the Berry",
he had made himself the intimate, almost the mystic, comrade of nature.
He had an ecstatic sense of the visible world. Beauty was his religion,
and he spent his life learning the ways and moods of nature and declaring them
in poetry rich in imagination. He had the naturalist's eagerness for truth,
and one might explore the Kentucky woods and fields
with a volume of his poetry as a handbook and find the least regarded flower
minutely celebrated. In his most affluent fancy his eye never left the fact,
and the accuracy of his observation gives his nature work a background
which adds greatly to its value.

Cheney, John Vance. [1848-1922] (2)
Born at Groveland, New York, December 29, 1848. Received his early education
at Temple Hill Academy in Geneseo, New York. After a short period
of teaching and of practicing law, he became the librarian
of the Free Public Library of San Francisco and held this position
from 1887 to 1894, when he accepted a similar one at the Newberry Library
in Chicago, where he remained until 1899. Since that date
he has resided in California, where he devotes his time to literary work.
His volumes of poetry are: "Thistle Drift", 1887; "Woodblooms", 1888;
"Out of the Silence", 1897; "Lyrics", 1901; "Poems", 1905;
"The Time of Roses", 1908; "At the Silver Gate", 1911.

Coates, Florence Earle. [1850-1927] (3)
Born at Philadelphia and educated at private schools in that city
and in France. She studied also at Brussels. Her volumes of poetry
in their order are, "Poems", 1898; "Mine and Thine", 1904;
"Lyrics of Life", 1909; "The Unconquered Air", 1912;
"Poems", Collected Edition, in two volumes, 1916.

Colton, Arthur. [1868-1943] (2)
Born at Washington, May 22, 1868. Received the degree of A.B.
at Yale University in 1890 and of Ph.D. in 1893. He was also instructor
in English at Yale for two years following the taking of his last degree.
Since 1906 he has been librarian of the University Club of New York City.
Mr. Colton has published several volumes of essays and but one volume
of poetry: "Harps Hung up in Babylon", 1907.

Cone, Helen Gray. [1859-1934] (2)
Born in New York City, March 8, 1859. Graduated at
the Normal College of New York City in 1876. She has been
Professor of English Literature at her Alma Mater, now called Hunter College,
since 1899. Her volumes of verse are: "Oberon and Puck", 1885;
"The Ride to the Lady", 1893; "Soldiers of the Light", 1911;
"A Chant of Love for England, and Other Poems", 1915.

Daly, Thomas Augustine. [1871-1948] (2)
Born at Philadelphia, May 28, 1871, and educated at Fordham University.
He was for some time reporter and editorial writer on
the "Philadelphia Record", and is now the general manager of
the "Catholic Standard and Times". Mr. Daly has put the Italian immigrant
into poetry and written several volumes of delightful verse in this field.
He has not pursued this exclusively, however, but has done some excellent work
in other themes. His volumes are: "Canzoni", 1906; "Carmina", 1909;
"Madrigali", 1912; and "Songs of Wedded Love", 1916.

Dargan, Olive Tilford. [1869-1968] (1)
Born in Grayson County, Kentucky, and educated at the University of Nashville
and at Radcliffe College. She became a teacher and was connected with
various schools in Arkansas, Missouri, and Texas until her marriage.
Mrs. Dargan's first work was in poetic drama in which she revealed gifts of
a high order. Her dramatic volumes are: "Semiramis, and Other Plays", 1904;
"Lords and Lovers", 1906; and "The Mortal Gods", 1912. Mrs. Dargan
has also written a collection of lyric verse called "Path Flower", 1914,
and a sonnet sequence, "The Cycle's Rim", 1916.

Daskam, Josephine Dodge (Mrs. Selden Bacon). [1876-1961] (1)
Born at Stamford, Connecticut, February 17, 1876. Graduated at Smith College
in 1898. She is chiefly known as a novelist and writer of short stories
in which field she has had conspicuous success. Among her
volumes of fiction are: "The Madness of Philip"; "Whom the Gods Destroyed";
"Margherita's Soul"; and "Open Market". Miss Daskam has done
but one volume of verse: "Poems", 1903.

Davis, Fannie Stearns (Mrs. Augustus McKinstrey Gifford). [1884-?] (2)
Born at Cleveland, Ohio, March 6, 1884. Educated at Smith College,
from which she graduated in 1904. She is the author of two volumes of poetry:
"Myself and I", 1913, and "Crack O' Dawn", 1915, both marked
by sensitive poetic feeling and delicate artistry.

Firkins, Chester. [1882-1915] (1)
Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, June 30, 1882. Received his education
in the public schools of that city and at the University of Minnesota.
He was an active journalist, having been associated with the press
of Columbus and Cincinnati, Ohio, and of Chicago before coming to New York,
where he served on the staff of the "New York American" until his death,
March 1, 1915. He was a contributor of stories and verse
to well-known magazines, but his volume of poems was brought out posthumously
in 1916.

French, Nora May. [1881-1907] (1)
Born in East Aurora, New York, and died at Carmel, California, on November 14,
1907, when twenty-six years of age. A small volume of her poems,
edited by her friend, George Sterling, was brought out after her death.

Garrison, Theodosia (Mrs. Frederick J. Faulks). [1874-1944] (2)
Born at Newark, New Jersey. Educated at private schools in New York.
She was for several years a constant contributor of poetry to the magazines,
though she has written less of late. Her two published volumes of verse are:
"Joy O' Life", 1908, and "The Earth Cry", 1910.

Greene, Sarah Pratt McLean. [1856-1935] (1)
Born at Simsbury, Connecticut, July 3, 1856 and educated at
McLean Academy and at Mount Holyoke College. She is chiefly known
as the author of "Cape Cod Folks", "Vesty of the Basins", and other volumes
dealing with the life of the Cape Cod fishermen, but Mrs. Greene has written
one poem destined to hold a permanent place not only in our literature, but in
the larger body of enduring poetry. This is "De Massa ob de Sheepfol'",
contained in this collection.

Guiney, Louise Imogen. [1861-1920] (4)
Born at Boston, January 7, 1861. Educated in the private schools of Boston
and the Sacred Heart Convent in Providence, Rhode Island.
Her father, Patrick Guiney, was a brigadier-general in our Civil War,
and having been born during the period of the conflict and her early youth
having been spent almost before the echo of the guns had died,
Miss Guiney's work was much influenced by this background of association.
The symbolism of her poetry is frequently drawn from battle
or from knight-errantry, as in "The Wild Ride", "The Kings",
"The Vigil-at-Arms", "The Knight Errant", "Memorial Day", etc.
Valor, transmuted to a spiritual quality, may, indeed, be said to be
the keynote of Miss Guiney's work. Add to this a mystical element,
best illustrated in her poem, "Beati Mortui", a Celtic note,
shown so exquisitely in her "Irish Peasant Song", and one has
the more obvious characteristics of poetry that, whatever its theme,
is always distinguished and individual. Miss Guiney has
a crisp economy of phrase, a pungency and tang, that invest her style
with an unusual degree of personality. Her volumes in their order have been:
"The White Sail", 1887; "A Roadside Harp", 1893; "Nine Sonnets
Written at Oxford", 1895; "The Martyr's Idyl", 1899; and "Happy Ending",
her collected poems, 1909.

Hagedorn, Hermann. [1882-1964] (2)
Born July 18, 1882. Educated at Harvard University
and the University of Berlin and served as instructor in English
at Harvard from 1909 to 1911. Mr. Hagedorn is the author of
"The Silver Blade: A Play in Verse", 1907; "The Woman of Corinth", 1908;
"A Troop of the Guard", 1909; "Poems and Ballads", 1911;
and "The Great Maze and the Heart of Youth: A Poem and a Play", 1916.

Helburn, Theresa. [1887-1959] (1)
Born in New York City. Educated at Bryn Mawr College and at Radcliffe.
She has not yet published a collection of poetry, but has contributed
to the leading magazines.
[Theresa Helburn is best known for her work in theatre. -- A. L., 1998.]

Hovey, Richard. [1864-1900] (4)
Born at Normal, Illinois, May 4, 1864, died February 24, 1900.
He received his early education at Dartmouth College,
which he afterward celebrated in several of his best-known poems.
In collaboration with Bliss Carman he did the well known "Vagabondia Books",
-- "Songs from Vagabondia", 1894; "More Songs from Vagabondia", 1896;
"Last Songs from Vagabondia", 1900, -- books whose freshness and charm
immediately won them a place in public favor that time has not lessened.
Aside from his work with Mr. Carman and his lyric collection,
"Along the Trail", 1898, Hovey had done a remarkable group of poetic dramas
built upon the Arthurian legend and issued separately under the titles,
"The Quest of Merlin: A Masque", 1898; "The Marriage of Guenevere:
A Tragedy", 1898; "The Birth of Galahad: A Romantic Drama", 1898;
"Taliesin: A Masque", 1899. These were but part of the dramas
projected in the cycle and a fragment of the next to be issued,
"The Holy Grail", was published, with explanatory notes of the whole series,
in 1907. The dramas stand for a dramatic achievement of a high order,
and contain poetry of great beauty, reaching at times,
in the lyric masque of "Taliesin", an almost consummate expression.
Richard Hovey was, indeed, both in lyric and dramatic work,
a poet of rare endowment and his early death was a distinct loss
to American letters.

Johns, Orrick. [1887-1946] (1)
Born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1887. Educated at the University of Missouri
and Washington University in St. Louis. He was associated for a short time
with "Reedy's Mirror". In 1912 he received the first prize,
of five hundred dollars, for a poem entitled "Second Avenue",
contributed to the prize contest of "The Lyric Year", and afterwards published
in that volume.

Jones, Thomas S., Jr. [1882-1932] (3)
Born at Boonville, New York, November 6, 1882. Graduated at
Cornell University in 1904. He was on the dramatic staff
of the "New York Times", from 1904 to 1907, and associate editor
of "The Pathfinder", in 1911. His published volumes are:
"Path of Dreams", 1904; "From Quiet Valleys", 1907; "Interludes", 1908;
"Ave Atque Vale" (In Memoriam Arthur Upson), 1909; "The Voice in the Silence",
with a Foreword by James Lane Allen, 1911; and "The Rose-Jar",
originally published in 1906, but taken over in 1915
by Thomas B. Mosher and made the initial volume of "Lyra Americana",
his first series of American poetry.

Kilmer, Joyce. [1886-1918] (2)
Born at New Brunswick, New Jersey, December 6, 1886, and graduated
at Columbia University in 1908. After a short period of teaching
he became associated with Funk and Wagnalls Company, where he remained
from 1909 to 1912, when he assumed the position of literary editor
of "The Churchman". In 1913 Mr. Kilmer became a member of the staff
of the "New York Times", a position which he still occupies.
His volumes of poetry are: "A Summer of Love", 1911,
and "Trees, and Other Poems", 1914.

Knowles, Frederick Lawrence. [1869-1905] (2)
Born at Lawrence, Massachusetts, September 8, 1869, and graduated
at Wesleyan University in 1894 and Harvard University in 1896.
He was connected for a short time with the editorial department
of Houghton Mifflin Company and with the staff of L. C. Page and Company
as literary adviser. In 1900 he accepted a similar position
with Dana Estes and Company where he remained until his death
in September, 1905. Mr. Knowles was the author of two volumes of verse:
"On Life's Stairway", 1900, and "Love Triumphant", 1904. In addition to
his own work in poetry he was the editor of several excellent anthologies,
such as "The Golden Treasury of American Lyrics", 1897;
"A Treasury of Humorous Poetry", 1902; and "A Year-Book of Famous Lyrics".
Mr. Knowles was a poet of fine gifts and his early death was a loss
to American poetry.

Ledoux, Louis V. [1880-1948] (1)
Born at New York City, June 6, 1880. Educated at Columbia University,
where he graduated in 1902. He is the author of "Songs from the Silent Land",
1905; "The Soul's Progress", 1907; "Yzdra: A Poetic Drama", 1909;
"The Shadow of Etna", 1914; "The Story of Eleusis: A Lyrical Drama", 1916.

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