The Poetry Society of America, organized in 1910, was a natural
response, perhaps at the time unconscious, to the reawakened interest in
poetry, now so widely apparent.
There seemed no reason why poetry, one of the noblest of the arts,
should not take to itself visible organization as well as its sister
arts of music and painting, since it was certain that such organization
contributed much to their advancement and appreciation. Poetry alone
remained an isolated art, save through the doubtful value of coteries
dedicated to the study of some particular poet. In the sense of
fellowship, of the creative sympathy of contact, of the keener
appreciation which must follow the wider knowledge of an art, poetry
stood alone, detached from these avenues open from the beginning to
other arts.
The Society was therefore founded, with a charter membership of about
fifty persons, which included many of the poets doing significant work
to-day, together with critics and representatives of other arts, the
purpose from the outset being to include the appreciators of poetry as
well as its producers. It has grown to nearly two hundred members,
distributed from coast to coast, and eventually it will probably resolve
itself into branch societies, with the chief organization, as now, in
New York. Such societies should have a wide influence upon their
respective communities in stimulating interest in the work of living
poets, to which the Poetry Society as an organization is chiefly
addressed.
Since the passing of the nineteenth-century poets, the art of poetry,
like the art of painting, has taken on new forms and become the vehicle
of a new message. The poet of to-day speaks through so different a
medium, his themes are so diverse from those of the elder generation,
that he cannot hope to find his public in their lingering audience. He
must look to his contemporaries, to those touched by the same issues and
responsive to the same ideals. To aid in creating this atmosphere for
the poet, to be the nucleus of a movement for the wider knowledge of
contemporaneous verse, the Poetry Society of America took form and in
its brief period has, I think, justified the idea of its promoters.
Its meetings are held once a month at the National Arts Club in New
York, with which it is affiliated, and are given chiefly to the reading
and discussion of poetry, both of recently published volumes and of
poems submitted anonymously. This feature has proved perhaps the most
attractive, and while criticism based upon one hearing of a poem cannot
be taken as authoritative, it is often constructive and valuable.
The Society is assembling an interesting collection of books, a
twentieth century library of American poetry. Aside from its own
collection, it is taking steps to promote a wider representation of
modern poets in public libraries.
_Jessie B. Rittenhouse._