Toward the Gulf | Page 2

for some
hundreds of years in combinations of dactyls, anapests or trochees, and
without rhyme. Nor did I discover to the world that an iambic
pentameter can be lopped to a tetrameter without the verse ceasing to
be an iambic; though it be no longer the blank verse which has so
ennobled English poetry. A great deal of unrhymed poetry is yet to be
written in the various standard rhythms and in carefully fashioned
metres.
But obviously a formal resuscitation of the Greek epigrams, ironical
and tender, satirical and sympathetic, as casual experiments in
unrelated themes would scarcely make the same appeal that an epic
rendition of modern life would do, and as it turned out actually
achieved.
The response of the American press to Spoon River Anthology during
the summer of 1914 while it was appearing in the Mirror is my warrant
for saying this. It was quoted and parodied during that time in the
country and in the metropolitan newspapers. _Current Opinion_ in its
issue of September, 1914, reproduced from the Mirror some of the
poems. Though at this time the schematic effect of the Anthology could
not be measured, Edward J. Wheeler, that devoted patron of the art and
discriminating critic of its
manifestations, was attracted, I venture to
say, by the substance of "Griffy, The Cooper," for that is one of the
poems from the Anthology which he set forth in his column "The Voice

of Living Poets" in the issue referred to. Poetry, A Magazine of Verse,
followed in its issue of October, 1914, with a reprinting from the
Mirror. In a word, the Anthology went the rounds over the country
before it was issued in book form. And a reception was thus prepared
for the complete work not often falling to the lot of a literary
production. I must not omit an expression of my gratitude for the very
high praise which John Cowper Powys bestowed on the Anthology just
before it appeared in book form and the publicity which was given his
lecture by the New York Times. Nathan Haskell Dole printed an article
in the Boston Transcript of June 30, 1915, in which he contrasted the
work with the Greek Anthology, pointing in particular to certain
epitaphs by Carphylides, Kallaischros and Pollianos. The critical
testimony of Miss Harriet Monroe in her editorial comments and in her
preface to "The New Poetry" has greatly strengthened the judgment of
to-day against a reversal at the hands of a later criticism.
This response to the Anthology while it was appearing in the Mirror
and afterwards when put in the book was to nothing so much as to the
substance. It was accepted as a picture of our life in America. It was
interpreted as a transcript of the state of mind of men and women here
and elsewhere. You called it a Comedy Humaine in your announcement
of my identity as the author in the Mirror of November 20, 1914. If the
epitaphic form gave added novelty I must confess that the idea was
suggested to me by the Greek Anthology. But it was rather because of
the Greek Anthology than from it that I evolved the less harmonious
epitaphs with which Spoon River Anthology was commenced. As to
metrical epitaphs it is needless to say that I drew upon the legitimate
materials of authentic English versification. Up to the Spring of 1914, I
had never allowed a Spring to pass without reading Homer; and I feel
that this familiarity had its influence both as to form and spirit; but I
shall not take the space now to pursue this line of confessional.
What is the substance of which I have spoken if it be not the life around
us as we view it through eyes whose vision lies in heredity, mode of
life, understanding of ourselves and of our place and time? You have
lived much. As a critic and a student of the country no one understands
America better than you do. As a denizen of the west, but as a surveyor

of the east and west you have brought to the country's interpretation a
knowledge of its political and literary life as well as a proficiency in the
history of other lands and other times. You have seen and watched the
unfolding of forces that sprang up after the Civil War. Those forces
mounted in the eighties and exploded in free silver in 1896. They began
to hit through the directed marksmanship of Theodore Roosevelt during
his second term. You knew at first hand all that went with these forces
of human hope, futile or valiant endeavor, articulate or inarticulate
expression of the new birth. You saw and lived, but in greater degree,
what I have seen and lived. And with this back-ground you inspired