The Classics and Out Twentieth-Century Poets. Address as President of the American Philological Association at Harvard University, December 29, 1926. Stanford University Publications: Language and Literature (II/2).

Aus der Bibliothek von Prof. Wolfgang Haase, langj�igem Herausgeber der ANRW und des International Journal of the Classical Tradition (IJCT) / From the library of Prof. Wolfgang Haase, long-time editor of ANRW and the International Journal of the Classical Tradition (IJCT). - Altersbedingt stark vergilbt, Einband etwas berieben und besto�n, sonst guter Zustand / Heavily yellowed due to age, binding somewhat rubbed and bumped, otherwise good condition. - THE CLASSICS AND OUR TWENTIETH-CENTURY POETS When I first announced my subject, one of my unsympathetic colleagues remarked that he was not aware that there were any twentieth-century poets. Similarly, in The Romantic �90�s, Richard Le Gallienne tells how once in his boyhood, when he was introduced to the study of Virgil, he provoked his master�s laughter by naively asking, �Are there poets still alive?� It may be, too, that some of us, in our devotion to our great classical writers, are like the uncle to whom H. P. Collins thus dedicates his recent book on Modern Poetry: �To my uncle, a rather good classical scholar, who never opens a book of modern poetry, and, when he finds it quoted, skips it.�1 But we, students and teachers of literature, cannot afford to shut our eyes to the fact that, in this our own day and generation, a great deal of good poetry is published from year to year. Indeed, with our intellectual interests and literary training we should be among the first to serve as critics of current verse, especially if�as is often the case�it makes a peculiar appeal to those who are familiar with the classics of Greece and Rome. Unhappily, however, I fear it will be a surprise to not a few of our scholars to learn that a great deal of the best poetry of today�as judged by competent critics �is so intimately linked with Greek and Latin literature that a reader, to whom the great originals are unknown, must often fail to catch or interpret the modern writer�s meaning. Here I can imagine that some of my audience may be inclined to say that I am surely overlooking such a series of books as Our Debt to Greece and Rome,2 and the many excellent volumes which have already appeared therein. These do, of course, dwell upon the significance of ancient writers in this twentieth century of ours, and furnish the interpreter of classical literature with a large amount of modern material which is closely related to the ancient masterpieces, but the point I wish to emphasize is that our classical scholars should keep abreast of current literature, as it appears year by year and month by month, and should claim the right to pass judgment upon it, especially if it is closely related, in type or theme or style, to their special field.