SOURCE: Sturgeon, Mary C. “Lascelles Abercrombie.” In Studies of Contemporary Poets, pp. 11-35. New York: Dodd, Mead, and Company, 1916.

In the following excerpt, Sturgeon examines the ways in which Abercrombie's poetry represents the age in which it was written.

In the sweet chorus of modern poetry one may hear a strange new harmony. It is the life of our time, evoking its own music: constraining the poetic spirit to utter its own message. The peculiar beauty of contemporary poetry, with its fresh and varied charm, grows from that; and in that, too, its vitality is assured. Its art has the deep sanction of loyalty: its loyalty draws inspiration from the living source.

There is a fair company of these new singers; and it would seem that there should be large hope for a generation, whether in its life or letters, which can find such expression. Listening carefully, however...