INTRODUCTION
.
| SHALL
take it to be
conceded , at this
time
of day,
1
not only that good
poetry
is worth writing , but that
our
language has
a
capacity
and
our nation
a
rather
special aptitude
for
it :
and
these
admissions — if the
reader will be good
enough
to make them
before
starting
upon the
poems here collected
—will excuse
together
the
authors, the anthologist, and the contributor of this
short
' Introduction .'
For
if good
poetry be worth
writing , the attempt
to write it must be worth making :
nor
does it need
a
Socratic
dialogue to prove that the more numerous
they
are who
engage
in
the attempt
the fairer will be
the
prospect of
somebody 's succeeding .
Derision
of minor
verse , serio -comic
terror of poetasters , prophesy
of their
multiplying
and
devouring us
in
a
flood, disparage
ment
of
the
poetic
ambition
in
any
stage
short
of
acclaimed
success — all
these
have
ever
belonged
to
the witling 's
stock -in -trade , and I know
no
part
of it
more
cheaply
come by.
You will find it very
nobly
and
disdainfully
assigned
its
proper
value
in
the opening
page
or
two
of
Dryden
's
famous
Essay
of
Dramatic
Poesy
.
In
that little masterpiece
,
Dryden
deliberately
lays his scene
,
choosing
an
occasion
which
,
more
than
any
in
his time
,
might
seem
to
justify
the vulgar
con
tempt
of
poetry
as
a
mere frill
and
accessory
upon
human
affairs
:
'
It
was that memorable day
(
he
says
),
in
the first
summer
of
the late war
,
when
our navy engaged
the
Dutch
:
a
day wherein
the two most mighty
and
best