the many forms of "modern" poetry until a dozen years
ago. I did not know until I read it that it was concerned
with matters important to me that were largely untouched
in traditional poetry. I found that some of my own auto-
biography was recorded in these poets and that I knew
myself and my age better for having read them. No doubt
there was much that was alien to me, and no doubt I
came out at a different point from most of these writers.
Yet in many respects they were writing about the world I
lived in more truly than poets of the traditional schools.
These varieties of contemporary poetry must receive large
place if we hope to find in it a full criticism of and a full
testimony to our age. Indeed, the present study largely
limits itself to these groups, partly because the outlook of
the traditional poetry is generally understood, and partly
because the new poets speak more immediately out of the
moods of our day.

Three particular interests have defined themselves in
the study of these poets and in the formulation of this
book. I have been interested, first of all, in finding what
light the new poetry throws upon the religious and ethical
attitudes of men today, especially those not identified with
the older traditions. What do twentieth century men live
by? What are their values? What do they think of life?
Which way are they moving? How does secularism, how
does paganism (if such it is) speak when its bars are
down? The poets should be to some degree representative.

But there is a second interest to which considerable
space is given, an interest not so obvious in the title. Given
these attitudes, these features of the new poetry, what is
their soil? What light is thrown on contemporary culture

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