Cambridge Poets 1900–1913

INTRODUCTION . xiii swordsmanship to the complete grace of his body : and this doubt is strengthened in me by reflecting how certainly the final grace withholds itself from one who lacks understanding of poetry and how usefully the attempt to write it enlarges that understanding. In this efficacy Cambridge , at any rate, has always trusted ; and the following pages prove , and prove amply , that she remains loyalas ever to the belief . Critics —middle aged critics especially — will find much amiss with them ; and the fault as usual will lie with Time at least as much as with Thyrsis , with the critic 's years as with the singer 's lack of them : Our feelings lose poetic flow Soon after thirty years or so : Professionising modern men Thenceforth admire what pleased them then (I am writing far from books and quote the author of Ionica from treacherous memory ). In the hey - day of the Elizabethan drama in the year that gave birth to Hamlet , middle - aged men were no less positive than they are to - day concerning poetry , that the worst and worst Times still succeed the former . But if our eyes refuse to acknowledge the brilliance of the flame , they must at least recognise the ardour and number of the torch - bearers : for whatever old age may lose it retains (if only for the sake of avarice ) the faculty of counting . Now I do not propose to pick and choose for commendation among the numbers which Mrs . Graham has gathered together : because young men , while kindly