A. Critical and Comparative Studies

9. Weaver, Raymond. ‘What Ails Pegasus?’ Bookman (New York) 52 (1920): 57-66.

In review of Bynner’s Canticle of Pan (BE3) Weaver draws general conclusions about the ‘pernicious’ influence of ‘the Orient’ in English poetry: ‘Both the language and the poetry of China and Japan . . . are irreconcilably alien both to the genius of our speech and the traditions of our literature. Whereas English poetry—with Greek—is perhaps the greatest in the world, oriental poetry—and Japanese in particular—is superlatively narrow in its scope and resources, and is chiefly remarkable for its limitations.’ Includes reference to Hearn (see D9), whose translation of Japanese poems ‘degenerated . . . into a prose caricature of vers libre’, and Noguchi (D15), who ‘capitalized our hysterical avidity for foreign novelties, and an “oriental manner”’.

 

 

 

 


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