Page:The Harvard Classics Vol. 51; Lectures.djvu/91

 V. THE ENGLISH ANTHOLOGY

HE English Anthology, contained in Volumes XL to XLII of The Harvard Classics, comprises a selection of representative poems in English from Chaucer to Walt Whitman, a period of about five hundred years. In the range and variety of subject and forms, these volumes bear eloquent witness to the manifold creative power of poetry. But the very abundance of their treasures suggests certain problems, at the same time that it offers material for their solution. What is the subject of poetry, and what the meaning of these varied forms? How shall the reader find his way to the poetry that is truly for him, and how may he win from it what it holds of present delight and of lasting service? It is evident that the spirit of poetry, intensely real but elusive as a sky-born Ariel, may incarnate itself in many forms and wear a rainbow vesture. As indicated in the General Introduction, the shaping purpose of a poem is either the narrative interest or the lyric mood. But these two impulses are subject to wide modifications. The differences do not affect the character of each instance as poetry; to note them, however, furnishes a convenient formula of description and provides a clue to the fuller comprehension of the motive of a given poem.

THE KINDS OF POETRY When the poet's interest lies in action, incident, and situation, his poem takes the form of narrative. When such a poem attains a certain magnitude, when the action is on a large scale, and the personages are of sufficient eminence and importance, it becomes an epic. The epic may be relatively primitive and single-hearted like the "Iliad," the "Odyssey," "Beowulf," or the "Nibelungenlied." It may still recite the deeds of heroes in an earlier golden prime and 81