Contemporary American Literature | Page 6

since one is using them as parts of a
larger design, one can also obtain novel effects by placing them in

juxtaposition as consecutive movements....
All this, I must emphasize, is no less a matter of emotional tone than of
form; the two things cannot well be separated. For such symphonic
effects one employs what one might term emotion-mass with just as
deliberate a regard for its position in the total design as one would
employ a variation of form. One should regard this or that emotional
theme as a musical unit having such-and-such a tone quality, and use it
only when that particular tone-quality is wanted. Here I flatly give
myself away as being in reality in quest of a sort of absolute poetry, a
poetry in which the intention is not so much to arouse an emotion
merely, or to persuade of a reality, as to employ such emotion or sense
of reality (tangentially struck) with the same cool detachment with
which a composer employs notes or chords. Not content to present
emotions or things or sensations for their own sakes--as is the case with
most poetry--this method takes only the most delicately evocative
aspects of them, makes of them a keyboard, and plays upon them a
music of which the chief characteristic is its elusiveness, its
fleetingness, and its richness in the shimmering overtones of hint and
suggestion. Such a poetry, in other words, will not so much present an
idea as use its resonance.
2. An interesting comparison may be made between the work of Mr.
Aiken, and that of Mr. T.S. Eliot (q.v.), of whom he is an admirer. See
also Sidney Lanier's latest poems.
3. Another interesting study is the influence of Freud upon the poetry
of Mr. Aiken.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Earth Triumphant and Other Tales. 1914. Turns and Movies. 1916. The
Jig of Forslin. 1916. Nocturne of Remembered Spring. 1917. The
Charnel Rose; Senlin: a Biography, and other Poems. 1918.
Scepticisms: Notes on Contemporary Poetry. 1919. The House of Dust.
1920. Punch, the Immortal Liar. 1921.
STUDIES AND REVIEWS

Untermeyer.
Ath. 1919, 2: 798, 840; 1920, 1: 10. Bookm. 47 ('18): 269; 51 ('20):
194. Chapbook, 1-2, May, 1920: 26. Dial, 64 ('18): 291 (J.G. Fletcher);
66 ('19): 558 (J.G. Fletcher); 68 ('20): 491; 70 ('21): 343, 700. Egoist, 5
('18): 60. Nation, 111 ('20): 509. Poetry, 9 ('16): 99; 10 ('17): 162; 13
('18): 102; 14 ('19): 152; 15 ('20): 283; 17 ('21): 220. See also Book
Review Digest, 1919, 1920.

+"Henry G. Aikman" (Harold H. Armstrong)+--novelist. Born in 1879.
His books dealing with the psychology of the young man have attracted
attention.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
The Groper. 1919. Zell. 1921.
For reviews, see Book Review Digest, 1919, 1921.

+Zoë Akins+ (Missouri, 1886)--dramatist.
Attracted attention by her Papa, 1913, produced, 1919. Followed up
this success by Déclassée, also produced 1919 (quoted with
illustrations in Current Opinion, 68 ['20]: 187); and Daddy's Gone
A-Hunting, produced 1921.
For complete bibliography, see Who's Who in America.

+Mrs. Richard Aldington+ (Hilda Doolittle, "H.D.")--poet.
Born at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, 1886. Studied at Bryn Mawr, 1904-5,
but ill health compelled her to give up college work. In 1911, she went
abroad and remained there. In 1913, she married Richard Aldington,
the English poet (cf. Manly and Rickert, Contemporary British Poetry).

"H.D.'s" work is commonly regarded as the most perfect embodiment
of the Imagist theory.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Sea Garden. 1916. Hymen. 1921. Also in: Des Imagistes. 1914. Some
Imagist Poets. 1915, 1916. The Egoist. (Passim.)
STUDIES AND REVIEWS
Lowell. Untermeyer.
Bookm. (Lond.) 51 ('17): 132. Chapbook, 2 ('20): No. 9, p. 22. (Flint.)
Dial, 72 ('22): 203. (May Sinclair.) Egoist, 2 ('15): 72 (Flint); 88 (May
Sinclair). Little Review, 5 ('18): Dec., p. 14. (Pound.) Lond. Times, Oct.
5, 1916: 479. Poetry, 20 ('20): 333. Poetry Journal, 7 ('17): 171.

+James Lane Allen+--novelist.
Born near Lexington, Kentucky, 1849, of Scotch-Irish Revolutionary
ancestry. A.B., A.M., Transylvania University; and honorary higher
degrees. Taught in various schools and colleges. Since 1886 has given
his time entirely to writing. Nature lover. Describes the Kentucky life
that he knows.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Flute and Violin and Other Kentucky Tales and Romances. 1891. The
Blue Grass Region of Kentucky and Other Kentucky Articles. 1892.
John Gray--a Novel. 1893. *A Kentucky Cardinal. 1895. Aftermath.
1896. A Summer in Arcady. 1896. The Choir Invisible. 1897. (Novel;
play, 1899.) Two Gentlemen of Kentucky. 1899. The Reign of Law. A
Tale of the Kentucky Hemp Fields. 1900. *The Mettle of the Pasture.
1903. The Bride of the Mistletoe. 1909. The Doctor's Christmas Eve.
1910. The Heroine in Bronze, or A Portrait of a Girl. 1912. The Last
Christmas Tree. 1914. The Sword of Youth. 1915. A Cathedral Singer.
1916. The Kentucky Warbler. 1918. The Emblems of Fidelity. 1919.

STUDIES AND REVIEWS
Harkins. Pattee. Toulmin.
Acad. 59