SOURCE: "John Drinkwater," in Striking Figures among Modern English Dramatists, Levin & Munksgaard, 1931, pp. 69-88.

In the following essay, Ellehauge examines Drinkwater's aesthetic philosophy.

John Drinkwater continues the conscious revolt against the problem-play. His strong aversion to this school leads him to substitute the themes of a remote time for the present day affairs. In his study of William Morris, 1912, he calls attention to the danger for a poet in a too close contact with contemporary problems because

broadly speaking the things of immediate importance are the unimportant things.

Cognate feelings induce him to flee from the exterior world and take refuge in his own mind. His first poems and such plays as Cophetua, 1911, and Rebellion, 1914, extracted the following comment from his critics:

… writing contemporaneously with others of his own generation, he was not yet a contemporary poet. [Mary Sturgeon, Contemporary Poets]

And he soon realises that he has...