Contemporary American Literature Part 5

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Fables in Slang. 1900.

More Fables. 1900.

Forty Modern Fables. 1901.

The County Chairman. 1903. (Play.) The College Widow. 1904. (Play.) Ade's Fables. 1914.

Hand-Made Fables. 1920.

For complete bibliography, see _Cambridge_, III (IV), 640, 763.

STUDIES AND REVIEWS

Moses.

Am. M. 73 ('11): 71 (portrait), 73.

Bookm. 51 ('20): 568; 54 ('21): 116.

Harp. W. 47 ('03): 411 (portrait), 426.

No. Am. 176 ('03): 739. (Howells.) Rev. 2 ('20): 461.

+Conrad Potter Aiken+--poet, critic.

Born at Savannah, Georgia, 1889. A.B., Harvard, 1912. Has lived abroad, in London, Rome, and Windermere.

SUGGESTIONS FOR READING

1. A good introduction to Mr. Aiken's verse is his own explanation of his theory in _Poetry_, 14 ('19); 152ff. To readers to whom this is not accessible, the following extracts may furnish some clue as to his aim and method:

What I had from the outset been somewhat doubtfully hankering for was some way of getting contrapuntal effects in poetry--the effects of contrasting and conflicting tones and themes, a kind of underlying simultaneity in dissimilarity. It seemed to me that by using a large medium, dividing it into several main parts, and subdividing these parts into short movements in various veins and forms, this was rendered possible. I do not wish to press the musical a.n.a.logies too closely. I am aware that the word symphony, as a musical term, has a very definite meaning, and I am aware that it is only with considerable license that I use the term for such poems as _Senlin_ or _Forslin_, which have three and five parts respectively, and do not in any orthodox way develop their themes.

But the effect obtained is, very roughly speaking, that of the symphony, or symphonic poem. Granted that one has chosen a theme--or been chosen by a theme!--which will permit rapid changes of tone, which will not insist on a tone too static, it will be seen that there is no limit to the variety of effects obtainable: for not only can one use all the simpler poetic tones...; but, since one is using them as parts of a larger design, one can also obtain novel effects by placing them in juxtaposition as consecutive movements....

All this, I must emphasize, is no less a matter of emotional tone than of form; the two things cannot well be separated. For such symphonic effects one employs what one might term emotion-ma.s.s with just as deliberate a regard for its position in the total design as one would employ a variation of form. One should regard this or that emotional theme as a musical unit having such-and-such a tone quality, and use it only when that particular tone-quality is wanted. Here I flatly give myself away as being in reality in quest of a sort of absolute poetry, a poetry in which the intention is not so much to arouse an emotion merely, or to persuade of a reality, as to employ such emotion or sense of reality (tangentially struck) with the same cool detachment with which a composer employs notes or chords. Not content to present emotions or things or sensations for their own sakes--as is the case with most poetry--this method takes only the most delicately evocative aspects of them, makes of them a keyboard, and plays upon them a music of which the chief characteristic is its elusiveness, its fleetingness, and its richness in the s.h.i.+mmering overtones of hint and suggestion. Such a poetry, in other words, will not so much present an idea as use its resonance.

2. An interesting comparison may be made between the work of Mr. Aiken, and that of Mr. T.S. Eliot (q.v.), of whom he is an admirer. See also Sidney Lanier's latest poems.

3. Another interesting study is the influence of Freud upon the poetry of Mr. Aiken.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Earth Triumphant and Other Tales. 1914.

Turns and Movies. 1916.

The Jig of Forslin. 1916.

Nocturne of Remembered Spring. 1917.

The Charnel Rose; Senlin: a Biography, and other Poems. 1918.

Scepticisms: Notes on Contemporary Poetry. 1919.

The House of Dust. 1920.

Punch, the Immortal Liar. 1921.

STUDIES AND REVIEWS

Untermeyer.

Ath. 1919, 2: 798, 840; 1920, 1: 10.

Bookm. 47 ('18): 269; 51 ('20): 194.

Chapbook, 1-2, May, 1920: 26.

Dial, 64 ('18): 291 (J.G. Fletcher); 66 ('19): 558 (J.G. Fletcher); 68 ('20): 491; 70 ('21): 343, 700.

Egoist, 5 ('18): 60.

Nation, 111 ('20): 509.

Poetry, 9 ('16): 99; 10 ('17): 162; 13 ('18): 102; 14 ('19): 152; 15 ('20): 283; 17 ('21): 220.

See also _Book Review Digest_, 1919, 1920.

+"Henry G. Aikman" (Harold H. Armstrong)+--novelist. Born in 1879. His books dealing with the psychology of the young man have attracted attention.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The Groper. 1919.

Zell. 1921.

For reviews, see _Book Review Digest_, 1919, 1921.

+Zoe Akins+ (Missouri, 1886)--dramatist.

Attracted attention by her _Papa_, 1913, produced, 1919. Followed up this success by _Decla.s.see_, also produced 1919 (quoted with ill.u.s.trations in _Current Opinion_, 68 ['20]: 187); and _Daddy's Gone A-Hunting_, produced 1921.

For complete bibliography, see _Who's Who in America_.

+Mrs. Richard Aldington+ (Hilda Doolittle, "H.D.")--poet.

Born at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, 1886. Studied at Bryn Mawr, 1904-5, but ill health compelled her to give up college work. In 1911, she went abroad and remained there. In 1913, she married Richard Aldington, the English poet (cf. Manly and Rickert, _Contemporary British Poetry_).

"H.D.'s" work is commonly regarded as the most perfect embodiment of the Imagist theory.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Sea Garden. 1916.