t see how modern poets can dispense with
either thought or emotion if they are to write real poetry. For one is
not enough without the other. Take for example the first lines of
Master's "Spoon River Anthology."

"Where are Elmer, Herman, Bert, Tom and Charley,
The weak of will, the strong of arm, the clown, the boozer,
the fighter?
All, all, are sleeping on the hill,
One passed in a fever,
One was buried in a mine,
One was killed in a brawl,
One died in a jail,
One fell from a bridge toiling for children and wife,
All, all are sleeping on the hill."

This sounds tragic indeed, but seems to have aroused no emotion on the
part of the poet and excites none in his readers. In fact, through the
whole poem, emotion is held in check with a strong hand, and only
allowed to show itself in some distorted cynicism.

Let us take an example of the opposite extreme where emotion, whether
real or fancied, has stifled thought.

O World! O Men! O Sun! to you I cry,
I raise my song defiant, proud, victorious,
And send this clarion ringing down the sky:
"I love, I love, I love, and Love is glorious!"

The definition chosen need not hamper the most "modern" poet nor
restrict his choice of subject, for there are few things that cannot
awaken both thought and emotion if looked at in the right way. An iron
foundry and a Venetian palace have immense possibilities of arousing
both elements, and perhaps the foundry has the greater power.

The modern poet has joined the great army of seekers after freedom,
that is, he refuses to observe the old conventions in regard to his
subjects and his method of treating them. He refuses to be bound by
the old restrictions of rhyme and metre, and goes far afield in search
of material on which to work. The boldest of the new school would
throw overboard all the old forms and write only in free verse, rythmic
prose or whatever he may wish to call it. The conservative, on the
other hand, clings stubbornly to the old conventions, and will have
nothing to do with vers libre or anything that savours of it.

But vers libre, like the motor-car and aeroplane, has come to stay
whether we like it or no. It is not really a new thing, although put
to a new use, for some of the greatest poetry of the Hebrews and other
Oriental nations was written in a form of free verse. At the present
time the number of those using it as medium of expression is steadily
incr