OXFORD POETRY
1921
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Oxford Poetry 1917–19
BASIL BLACKWELL
OXFORD POETRY
1921
EDITED BY
ALAN PORTER, RICHARD HUGHES,
ROBERT GRAVES
OXFORD BASIL BLACKWELL
MCMXXI
PRINTED AT THE
SHAKESPEARE HEAD PRESS
STRATFORD-UPON-AVON
The Editors of this year’s Oxford Poetry, the work of undergraduates who have been in residence since the date of the last collection, have attempted to make the volume more representative of Poetry and less representative merely of Oxford than its predecessors. There is always at Oxford a fashion in verse as much as in dress, and, to judge from the bulk of contributions submitted, this fashion has not changed materially since last noted and recorded in print. Mr Jones-Smith, of Balliol, still writes musically of brimming chalices, vermilion lips, chrysoprase, lotuses, arabesques and darkling spires against glimmering skies; Miss Smith-Jones, of Somerville, is equally faithful to her scarlet sins, beloved hearts, little clutching hands, little pattering feet, rosaries, eternity, roundabouts, and glimmering spires against darkling skies. Exclusion of these worn properties has given the fewer writers than usual represented here, extended elbow room, and a chance of showing some individual capacity for better or worse.
Most of the pieces have already appeared serially in The London Mercury, The Spectator, The Westminster Gazette, The New Statesman, The Nation and Athenæum, The Observer, and the other leading literary reviews.
For permission to use copyright poems, our thanks are due to Messrs Christophers, publishers of Mr Golding’s ‘Shepherd Singing Ragtime,’ and to Messrs Sidgwick and Jackson, publishers of Mr Rickword’s new volume ‘Behind the Eyes.’
CONTENTS
| F. N. W. BATESON (Trinity) | |
| Trespassers | Page [1] |
| EDMUND BLUNDEN (Queen’s) | |
| The Watermill | [2] |
| The Scythe | [4] |
| That Time is Gone | [7] |
| The South-West Wind | [8] |
| The Canal | [9] |
| The March Bee | [11] |
| LOUIS GOLDING (Queen’s) | |
| Ploughman at the Plough | [12] |
| Portrait of an Artist | [13] |
| Shepherd singing Ragtime | [14] |
| Ghosts Gathering | [18] |
| Silver-badged Waiter | [20] |
| ROBERT GRAVES (St John’s) | |
| Cynics and Romantics | [21] |
| Unicorn and the White Doe | [22] |
| Sullen Moods | [25] |
| Henry and Mary | [27] |
| On the Ridge | [28] |
| A Lover since Childhood | [29] |
| ROSALEEN GRAVES (Home Student) | |
| Night Sounds | [30] |
| ‘A Stronger than he shall come upon him ...’ | [32] |
| Colour | [33] |
| BERTRAM HIGGINS (B.N.C.) | |
| White Magic | [34] |
| RICHARD HUGHES (Oriel) | |
| Singing Furies | [35] |
| The Sermon | [37] |
| Tramp | [38] |
| Gratitude | [40] |
| Judy | [42] |
| Ruin | [43] |
| ALAN PORTER (Queen’s) | |
| Introduction to a Narrative Poem | [44] |
| Summer Bathing | [47] |
| Country Churchyard | [49] |
| Museum | [50] |
| Lost Lands | [52] |
| FRANK PREWETT (Christ Church) | |
| Come Girl, and embrace | [53] |
| I went out into the Fields | [54] |
| Comrade, why do you weep? | [56] |
| The Winds caress the Trees | [57] |
| EDGELL RICKWORD (Pembroke) | |
| Complaint of a Tadpole confined in a jam-jar | [58] |
| Regret for the Depopulation of Rural Districts | [60] |
| Complaint after Psycho-Analysis | [61] |
| Desire | [62] |
| Trench Poets | [63] |
| Winter Prophecies | [64] |