Excerpt from The Enchanted Years: A Book of Contemporary Verse, Dedicated by Poets of Great Britain and America to the University of Virginia on the Occasion of Its One-Hundredth Anniversary

Of course, as always when art is vitally in touch with reality, there has been marked individuality of manner and tone rather than group similarity. The leading English poets have been too original in crea tive power to be called Georgian, save as the name marks an era. The Irish writers may all have a part in the Celtic Renaissance, but the fairy magic of one or the lyric oracles of another cannot be classified by one academic label. Nor can the term new poetry in America resolve the colorful robust vitality, the cryptic vision, the brilliant intellectu ality, and the quiet beauty of certain poets into the patterned product of a narrowed code of art.

The Enchanted Years is a collection of verse representative of many difi'erent poetic aims andmethods. The freer forms of verse and the more traditional phrasings meet on the common ground of a clearly defined poetic purpose. From the voices of many of the sweetest and strongest singers the reader may learn through the poems brought to gether here what the tone in poetry of his own cen tury is. Most of the verses included have not been published before, and, therefore, though some have been printed in periodicals, and three or four in books, the volume is essentially a book of new orig inal poetry. The poets, in all cases, have Spoken their own thoughts upon their own themes. The contents of the book have been freely given by the authors as a centennial contribution to the Univer sity of Virginia, and the editors sincerely thank the distinguished group of poets who have dedicated the products of their art to the making of this anthology. They are grateful, also, for the generous interest of several other great writers who, though desirous of contributing to the volume, were for unavoidable reasons prevented from doing so. Perhaps no gift in its centenary year will enter more fully into the heritage of Poe's University than will this gift of the poets.

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