There are people in the world who like poetry if they know the poet.
There are a good many people in Chicago just now who understand and
enjoy Amy Lowell’s poetry because she read it to them at the Little
Theatre.
I know a poet who could make nothing of Vachel Lindsay’s things until
Lindsay chanted them to him one day. And I know another who said to me,
when I remarked that I didn’t like Alfred Kreymborg’s verse, “Oh, but
you would if you knew him.” I am puzzled, because I know this man to be
an intelligent being. And somehow I have always been under the naive
impression that poetry was a matter of art.
But there are worse things. There is one type of person we always eject
promptly from the office of THE LITTLE REVIEW. He is the person who says
that Amy Lowell’s poetry has no feeling in it. Now please listen: I want
to quote you something. It is called _Vernal Equinox_, it was written by
Miss Lowell, and it appeared in the September issue of _Poetry_; but I
want to see it put down in these pages so that we may actually know it
has been in THE LITTLE REVIEW:
The scent of hyacinths, like a pale mist, lies between me and
my book;
And the South Wind, washing through the room,
Makes the candles quiver;
My nerves sting at a spatter of rain on the shutter,
And I am uneasy at the bursting of green shoots
Outside, in the night.
Why are you not here to overpower me with your tense and
urgent love?
A poet whose new book will soon be talked of said to me, when I showed
this to him, “Yes, it’s very clever, but it has no feeling.” He left the
office gladly in three minutes.
Still there are worse things. _The Chicago Tribune_ sent a reporter to
the Little Theatre to hear Miss Lowell read and to record his impression
of her work and personality for those who still peruse the newspapers.
You may have seen the reporter’s article....
And still worse?... Lots of people have been splitting hairs over Amy
Lowell’s work, but no human being has been heard to remark: “A beautiful
thing is happening in America. Amy Lowell is writing poetry for us.”