SOURCE: Parker, Rennie. “Lascelles Abercrombie: ‘What Great Things I Meant to Do.’” In The Georgian Poets: Abercrombie, Brooke, Drinkwater, Gibson, and Thomas, pp. 6-20. Plymouth, England: Northcote House Publishers, 1999.

In the following essay, Parker places Abercrombie within the historical context of his contemporaries and discusses his critical reception.

‘Anyone who has ever heard him will remember the charm of his reading voice, the best reading voice of any poet known to me, or indeed of any man’ (J. W. Haines).¹ This is not the photogenic and charismatic Rupert Brooke, but the little-known poet Lascelles Abercrombie (1881-1938), whose reputation has not survived, despite the enthusiasm shown for his works by critics during his lifetime. Although Abercrombie largely gave up writing poetry during the First World War and turned increasingly to criticism during the 1920s, his reputation as an academic and literary pundit were sufficient to guarantee a high profile...