Overview of the Georgian Poets
- Background
- Flourished during the reign of George V (1911-1936).
- Though they had various characteristics, they were not conscious of belonging to a specific group.
- Imitated past poets and often ignored contemporary problems, yet saw themselves as heralds of a new age.
- Robert Graves' View
- Graves initially claimed to belong to this group but later broke away.
- Described their recommendations as discarding archaic diction and poetic constructions.
- Favored avoiding formally religious, philosophic, or improving themes, focusing instead on unemotional subjects like nature, love, leisure, old age, childhood, animals, and sleep.
- Criticism and Quality
- Though the quantity of work produced was great, the quality was not of a high order.
- Poets generally associated with this group had their work published in the five volumes of Georgian Poetry (1911-12, 1913-15, 1916-17, 1918-19, and 1920-22).
Notable Georgian Poets
- Walter De La Mare (1873-1957): The Enchanter of Dreamland
- Writes in a simple, pure, lyrical style about the beautiful sights and sounds of the country, children, and old people.
- His poetry often has a strange enchantment, produced by the apprehension of another world existing side by side with the everyday world.
- Bridges the gulf between waking and dreaming, reality and fantasy.
- Notable for his skill in managing metre and blending the grotesque with the profoundly pathetic.
- Introduction to Behold, This Dreamer: "Every imaginative poem resembles in its onset and its effect the experience of dreaming."
- William Henry Davies (1871-1940): The Natural Singer
- Immense interest in nature, describing authentic experiences of natural objects and scenes.
- Lyrics remind of Herrick and Blake's melodies.
- Unsophisticated and composed poems without much conscious effort, leading to a lack of polish and finish.
- Left numerous lyrics with enduring appeal due to their lively music.
- Laurence Binyon (1869-1943): The Scholar and Poet
- Translated Dante into English and had a keen sense of the just word and its sound.
- Wrote about classical themes, with notable works like Attila, a dramatic poem with vehement blank verse and rapid action.
- The First World War stirred profound feelings, leading to moving poems like "They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old."
- The Second World War saddened him, resulting in poems contrasting old pleasures and dreams with the war-oppressed present, published posthumously in 1944 as The Burning of the Leaves and Other Poems.
- Despite dealing with themes of decay and transience, his poetry expresses hope that nothing past is ultimately gone.
- John Masefield (born 1878): The Poet Laureate
- Has been Poet Laureate since 1930 and composed poems for over forty years.
- Early poetry, influenced by his time as a sailor, deals with life at sea and various adventures, found in Salt Water Ballads (1902) and Ballads (1906).
- Produced his best poetic tragedy, The Tragedy of Nan, in 1909.
- Later poetry focused on modern life in a realistic manner, with works like The Everlasting Mercy (1911), The Widow in the Bye-Street, Dauber (1913), and The Daffodil Fields (1913).
- These poems narrate stirring stories with excellent morals, earning him recognition as a 'prophet' of modern England.
Other Notable Contributors to Georgian Poetry
- Rupert Brooke
- G. K. Chesterton
- W. H. Davis
- Walter De La Mare
- John Masefield
- J. E. Flecker
- W. W. Gibson
- D. H. Lawrence
- John Drinkwater
- Sturge Moore
- Laurence Binyon
- Siegfried Sassoon
- Wilfred Owen
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