the spirit of '76 in poetry
TRANSCRIPT
The Spirit of '76 in PoetryThe Spirit of the American Revolution, as Revealed in the Poetry of the Period by SamuelWhite PattersonPoetry, Vol. 8, No. 5 (Aug., 1916), p. 267Published by: Poetry FoundationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20570891 .
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New Books of Verse
Crushed, when Love dies, Bravely her spirit cries; But through Life's empty room, Oh, the perfume!
H. M.
The Nameless One, by Anne Cleveland Cheney. Frederick A. Stokes Co., New York. How should a modern poet write a sixteenth-century
tragedy ? Of course it is possible to say "Don't!" like Punch to certain other adventurers. But that advice would not be final-there should be a way.
Of one thing, however, I feel sure: it should not be written in a futile imitation of Elizabethan English, like this:
Beshrew me now, a-gadding it must go, To see a limb o' Satan in his cell, Whatever hap;-the evil eye to 'em all!
I'll to my business-dangle an' who may!
Such a diction artificializes whatever it tries to express. The truest, most dramatic story could never be convincing in it. H. M.
THE SPIRIT OF '76 IN POETRY
The Spirit of the American Revolution, as Revealed in the
Poetry of the Period, by Samuel White Patterson, A. M., Ph. D. Richard G. Badger. This is an excellent study and compilation of American
verse from 1760 to 1783, beginning with Philip Freneau. It was a period which produced full-grown patriots, but its poets were extremely sophomoric.
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