Yet the purpose of these realists, when it has been sincere, has been useful: for every poet of experience knows that he must constantly revert to free verse and realism in order to avoid tightness of technique or academicism. When, however, they have been insincere, when they have been aware of palming off broken prose, or when their impulse has been merely symptomatic of a desire to do something new, startling, or "American," in order to keep their heads above the flood of books poured in from abroad, the result has been deplorable.
For a wave of interest in poetry, such as a dozen years of achievement has brought into existence at the present time, can easily be dissipated. No poetic public will long give attention to a realism which makes the mistake, common to all shallow realism, of neglecting passion, imagination, charm and nearly all the permanent qualities of any true poetry. "Prose syntax" and "natural speech" are good—and many of us, remembering Wordsworth, have never forgotten to use them. But in
