The Poets of the Early 20th Century: Volume II - Mary Plunkett to Drummond Allison

By T S Eliot, Edna St. Vincent Millay and George Orwell

In England the Victorian Age was about to become the past and a new age of worldwide wars of horror and slaughter would envelop and decimate generations, forever staining mankind.

The Century would see the World discover strengths. The Democracies would stand firm against Fascism and later Communism yet still keep its own elite and privileged in power and the rest of us underfoot.

The World was more connected than ever before. Culture accelerated its kaleidoscopic and interwoven journey. Transport delivered people by car and train and then aeroplane to far flung corners of the globe. Empires were at their zenith and ready to fragment with new nations, many troubled, rising from their decay.

The natural world continued to be plundered and pillaged for its resources by industries who pledged ‘more’ and ‘better’ and would clothe and feed a growing world yet sow the seeds now ready to devastate us in our current times.

The globe was as vibrant and violent as troubled and tarnished as it ever was. But new ideas, new political systems, new times changed everything once again.

For our wordsmiths there was much to write about, much to contemplate. Poetry was moving from its grand established forms to experiment with others; The Imagists; The Modernists. Poetry seemed to be everywhere and from everyone.

Owen, Mansfield to Millay and McKay. These are but a few of this rich, diverse wave that with mere words bring treasures beyond compare.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Portable Poetry
• Release date: Dec 12, 2023
• ISBN: 9781835470640

Book preview

The Poets of the Early Twentieth Century 

Volume 2

An Introduction

In England the Victorian Age was about to become the past and a new age of worldwide wars of horror and slaughter would envelop and decimate generations, forever staining mankind. 

The Century would see the World discover strengths. The Democracies would stand firm against Fascism and later Communism yet still keep its own elite and privileged in power and the rest of us underfoot.

The World was more connected than ever before.  Culture accelerated its kaleidoscopic and interwoven journey. Transport delivered people by car and train and then aeroplane to far flung corners of the globe.  Empires were at their zenith and ready to fragment with new nations, many troubled, rising from their decay.

The natural world continued to be plundered and pillaged for its resources by industries who pledged ‘more’ and ‘better’ and would clothe and feed a growing world yet sow the seeds now ready to devastate us in our current times.

The globe was as vibrant and violent as troubled and tarnished as it ever was.  But new ideas, new political systems, new times changed everything once again.

For our wordsmiths there was much to write about, much to contemplate. Poetry was moving from its grand established forms to experiment with others; The Imagists; The Modernists.  Poetry seemed to be everywhere and from everyone. 

Owen, Mansfield to Millay and McKay.  These are but a few of this rich, diverse wave that with mere words bring treasures beyond compare.  

Index of Contents

The Lions by Joseph Mary Plunkett

1841-1891 by Joseph Mary Plunkett

If We Return by F W Harvey

The Soldier Speaks by F W Harvey

The Negro Soldiers by Roscoe C Jamison

Into Battle by Julian Grenfell

Prayer For Those on the Staff by Julian Grenfell

Hymn by Fenton Johnson

Tired by Fenton Johnson

Sonnet I by Fernando Pessoa

If, After I Die by Fernando Pessoa

I Have A Rendezvous with Death by Alan Seeger

All Thats Not Love by Alan Seeger

Maktoob by Alan Seeger

The Unseen Planets by Raymond Chandler

The Poet's Knowledge by Raymond Chandler

I Saw A Man This Morning by Patrick Shaw Stewart

Whispers of Immortality by T S Eliot

The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock by T S Eliot

Preludes by T S Eliot

The Wounded Bird by Katherine Mansfield

Stars by Katharine Mansfield

A Fine Day by Katherine Mansfield

I Taught Myself To Live Simply by Anna Akhmatova

When I Write Poems by Anna Akhmatova

Poetry by Claude McKay

The White House by Claude McKay

The Lynching by Claude McKay

Strange Hells by Ivor Gurney

Crucifix Corner by Ivor Gurney

Serenade by Ivor Gurney

Break of Day in the Trenches by Isaac Rosenberg

Dead Man's Dump by Isaac Rosenberg

August 1914 by Isaac Rosenberg

Journey's End by Zora Neale Hurston

The Dog Tupman by Stella Benson

The Ballad of the Harp-Weaver by Edna St Vincent Millay

My Heart Being Hungry by Edna St Vincent Millay

What Lips My Lips Have Kissed, And Where, And Why by Edna St Vincent Millay

Sonnet XVIII - I, Being Born a Woman by Edna St Vincent Millay

Unity by Cesar Vallejo

Love by Edith Sodergran

On Foot I Had to Cross the Solar System by Edith Sodergran

Insouciance by Richard Aldington

Goodbye by Richard Aldington

Grey Hairs by Marina Ivanova Tsvetaeva

Lady with Camelias by Marina Ivanova Tsvetaeva

To Mother by Marina Ivanova Tsvetaeva

Back To Rest by Lietenant William Noel Hodgson MC

Before Action by Lieutenant William Noel Hodgson MC

Past One O'Clock by Vladimir Mayakovsky

So This Is How I Turned into a Dog by Vladamir Mayakovsky

Verse for a Certain Dog by Dorothy Parker

A Dream Lies Dead by Dorothy Parker

Comment by Dorothy Parker

Music by Wilfred Owen

Anthem For Doomed Youth by Wilfred Owen

Strange Meeting by Wilfred Owen

Song of the Son by Jean Toomer

Georgia Dusk by Jean Toomer

Autumn Dawn by Charles Sorley

When You See Millions of the Mouthless Dead by Charles Sorley

Such Such Is Death by Charles Sorley

Rain Music by Joseph S Cotter Jnr

Is it Because I'm Black by Joseph S Cotter Jnr

A Refugee by Lillian Bowes Lyon

A Woman Knitting by Lillian Bowes Lyon

The Washer-Woman by Otto Leland Bohanan

Dark Breed by Frederick Robert Higgins

The Old Wine by Frederick Robert Higgins

Thiepval Wood by Edmund Blunden

Before The Dawn by Federico Garcia Lorca

Ballad of the Moon by Frederico Garcia Lorca

The Guitar - La Guitarra by Frederico Garcia Lorca

Music by Stephen Vincent Benét

A Minor Poet by Stephen Vincent Benét

Colors by Stephen Vincent Benét

At Melville's Tomb by Hart Crane

Chaplinesque by Hart Crane

Africa by Lewis Alexander

A Field in Flanders by Thomas Wolfe

The Challenge by Thomas Wolfe

The Night Hunt by Patrick MacDonagh

Harlem by Langston Hughes

The Negro Speaks of Rivers by Langston Hughes

Dream Variation by Langston Hughes

I, Too by Langston Hughes

To Usward by Gwendolyn B Bennett

Epitaph by Gwendolyn B Bennett

Heritage by Gwendolyn B Bennett

Confession by Wallace Thurman

The Day-Breakers by Arna Bontemps

A Brown Girl Dead by Countee Cullen

To John Keats, Poet, At Spring Time by Countee Cullen

Tableau by Countee Cullen

Romance by George Orwell

The Pagan by George Orwell

Kitchener by George Orwell

The Firing Party by Christopher Caudwell

On Dryden by Christopher Caudwell

London I by Julian Bell

Catullus by Julian Bell

Jungle Taste by Edward S Silvera

Forgotten Dreams by Edward Silvera

All Day It Has Rained by Alun Lewis

Goodbye by Alun Lewis

The Cats Will Know by Cesare Pavese

Full Moon at Tierz - Before the Storming of Huesca by John Cornford

Poem to Margot Heinemann by John Cornford

A Letter From Aragon by John Cornford

How To Kill by