Elliott Stock (London) for H. C. Leonard-Selections from "Sacred Songs of the World." Charles Scribner's Sons for Selections from collected poems of: Mary Mapes Dodge. Josiah Gilbert Holland. Alan Seeger. Robert Louis Stevenson. Henry van Dyke. John Hall Wheelock. Skeffington & Sons (London) for John S. Arkwright-The Supreme Sacrifice. F. A. Stokes Company for Stephen Crane-The Peaks (from "War is Kind"). Talbot Press (Dublin, Ireland) for Joseph Mary Plunkett-I See His Blood upon the Rose. James T. White and Company for Thomas Curtis Clark-Selections from "Love Off to the War." MAGAZINES Asia Magazine for Rabindranath Tagore-Autumn. The Chap-Book (London) for Shane Leslie-Priest or Poet. The Detroit Free Press for Elizabeth York Case-There Is No Unbelief. The Masses for Max Eastman-Invocation. Max Eastman-At the Aquarium. Sarah N. Cleghorn-Comrade Jesus. New York Sun for Charles Wharton Stork-God, You Have Been too Good to Me. The Outlook for Hamlin Garland-The Cry of the Age. The Poetry Review (London) for Ivan Adair-Real Presence. Saturday Review (London) for Louis Golding-Second Seeing. Scribner's Magazine for Theodosia Garrison-Stains. Yale University Press for Karle Wilson Baker-Creeds, Good Company, the Ploughman (from "Blue William Rose Benét-The Falconer of God (from "The Falconer of God and Other Poems"). Gamaliel Bradford-God (from "Shadow Verses"). William A. Percy-Farmers (from "In April Once"). And to the following authors: James Vila Blake-In Him. Witter Bynner-The New God. John Vance Cheney-The Happiest Heart. Rhys Carpenter-Who Bids Us Sing? Fanny Heaslip Lea-The Dead Faith. Shane Leslie-Priest or Poet. Harold Monro-God (from "Dawn"). Angela Morgan-Reality, the Poet, Hail Man! and God Prays. James Oppenheim-The New God. James Oppenheim-Death. Edwin Ford Piper-The Church. Mrs. William Sharp-Selections from W. Sharp (Fiona Macleod). Arthur Edward Waite-At the End of Things. John Oxenham-Seeds. The generous coöperation of poets and publishers has made possible the inclusion of many poems which are still in copyright. We wish to express our grateful obligation to those poets who have added their permission to that of their publishers. EDITOR'S PREFACE The most obvious facts about this collection of poetry are that it is not all great and that it makes strange combinations and sequences. It ranges from the Psalms of David and the Hymn of Cleanthes to the latest free verse. The great hymns that are translated from the Latin and the most radical of the twentieth century verse are alike only in that they show human feeling about the concept that is the foundation of all religion. Many poems that are far from being great belong here because they are significant. There are some persons who say that our age has no religion; others say it is more sincerely religious than any of the great ages of faith that are gone. The most intelligent thought of the present bases the authority of religion, not upon revelation, but upon the nature of man. Man's hunger for God is as fundamental and legitimate as his hunger for food and love. Our age may be lost as to what it should believe, but we were never so sure that we must and do believe. The good swimmer knows best how to trust the water; the best life is most reliant upon what some call the Integrity of the Universe and one of the greatest poets called the Everlasting Arms. The great poets have always spoken with authority. In them has the Word been made flesh. Now a war-weary world in search of faith turns to them. The Bible is an anthology of Hebrew literature-the Great Anthology. If no future poets ever rise to so great a height of constructive imagination as those of the classic Hebrew period it will always remain the Bible of the race. A cursory view of other religious poetry shows little that is not based upon the biblical poetry, but the spiritual assets of mankind have never been gathered together that we may see what they are. This book is a step in that direction. Its purpose is to furnish delightful reading, to give comfort and consolation, to "restore the soul" as well as to supply material for the study of the history and psychology of religionthe last subject to be approached by scientific methods. The poems have been arranged in twelve divisions under the twelve religious concepts, a few of which have been arranged chronologically. The Idea of God is the core of the collection and furnishes the clue for the study of the thought moulds of different periods of thought. The longing for companionship with God has the highest emotional coloring of any of the approaches to Reality. The Faith section contains many poems of doubt which represent the work of the groping intellect. Merely sentimental poetry has been avoided. The poems of Nature and of the Search after God will be perhaps the most interesting to the twentieth century. Nature makes mystics of us all. The section on Immortality will be eagerly sought by those who are already sending their souls through the invisible, "some letter of that after life to spell." The cumulative effect of reading so many religious poems, of seeing so many glimpses of the invisible through so many eyes and during so many centuries is both elevating and sobering. To know only hymns is to be carried away against one's will, but to read the world poetry of religion is to be convinced by a cloud of witnesses. There must be a spiritual world. The telescope and the microscope and the X-ray have opened new worlds to us. What is there that will open the spiritual world? A common language might be a great step to knowledge of spiritual things. The oriental religions, Christianity and the modern cults all use different terms, but seek the same realities. There was a prophet-poet who lived in Galilee who said "I am the Way." The path He took, with all the greatest saints of all religions is the only path we know to the Other World. His language regarding the eternal verities has been the greatest unifying force ever projected into the world of human relations. The language of poetry is universal and may lead to the outer gate. CAROLINE MILES HILL, PH.D. INTRODUCTION THE RELIGIOUS SPIRIT IN THE WORLD'S POETRY HERBERT L. WILLETT, PH.D. It is significant that the narrative of world beginnings with which the Bible opens has been called the Poem of Creation. For though it purports to describe the origin of the heavens and the earth in accordance with the inherited tradition of the Semitic peoples, it handles the materials of that tradition with the masterful genius of the poet, the true creator of fresh and inspiring ideals. It is the type and symbol of all real poetry. It is rhythmical, artistic, imaginative, and marked by the creative passion that reforms and vitalizes the common materials and conceptions of a time, and brings into being a majestic, beautiful and inspiring work of art. All poetry that is worthy of the name is essentially creative. There may be verses that conform in all the outward marks of rhyme and metre to poetic canons, and yet are only the assembling of words in description or argument. Poetry moves on the higher levels of power and emotion. It is the product of a maker of ideas, not a finder and collector of phrases. In all poetic writing that has possessed the power of survival, something of this high and impressive quality resides. Only the creative artist is gifted with the ability to take the common facts and experiences of human life and invest them with the character of epic and enduring realities. As Ruskin has insisted, he is not a mere troubadour or finder; he is a poet, a creator. Poetry is the natural language of youth, freedom, joyousness and love of beauty. It is therefore the language of childhood, and of the youth of the race. The great poetry that has survived the centuries is rarely the result of formal compliance with rule and convention. It is the bold, free, spontaneous |