Page:An Anthology of Modern Bohemian Poetry.pdf/20

16 ample testimony. The most noteworthy member of Machar's school of poetry is Petr Bezruč, whose personality appears to have been shrouded in a certain amount of mystery. Under this pseudonym—adopted by a postal official of Brünn in Moravia, where he was born in 1867—appeared in 1903 a volume of poems entitled "The Silesian Number," of which a revised and augmented edition was issued in 1909 under the title "Silesian Songs."

Among these poems are to be found verses whose poignancy and human appeal would be difficult to rival in the poetry of to-day. Perhaps the "Rowton House Rhymes" of Mr. W. A. Mackenzie or some of John Davidson's poems strike a similar note. Bezruč deals with the miners in Austrian Silesia, the Czechs who are in danger of losing their nationality, whose language is despised and penalised. In dealing with these specifically localised social conditions, Bezruč tends to become a mere local poet, and many of his poems, indeed, suffer under this disadvantage. Without a commentary their meaning is obscure to the foreign reader. In many of them he employs local dialect and expressions—a kind of Polish-Czech jargon spoken in the districts of which he writes. But certain of his poems are universal in their appeal to humanity,—"Ostrava," "Thou and I," and "Who will take my place?" all of which are quoted here. In the poem "I," he flings a gauntlet in the face of the ruling classes. His ballads hint at rather than actually describe an event, but