The buried stream

G. C. Faber

Mr. Faber, in the preface to his Collected Poems, recalls with satisfaction the compliment paid to him as a publisher when the chairman of a London University students' society described him as the godfather of modern English poetry. But while he has played a ·certain part in the literary history of the last sixteen years-the first volume of poetry published by his firm was Mr. T. S. Eliot's Poems in 1925-he has published nothing, of his own verse since 1917. The reasons for this long silence and for its termination are given in a preface of considerable length, which expresses the author's attitude not only towards his own poetry but towards the poetry of his time. We think that this preface will be found to contain matter of serious interest to lovers of poetry. It is at least an original footnote to a remarkable period. The collection is divided into three books, arranged...