Loyola College - Review Yearbook (Montreal, Quebec Canada)

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VIEWS OF THE COLLEGE TOP RIGHT—REFECTORY BUILDING CENTRE—ENTRANCE TO JUNIOR BUILDING TOP LEFT—JUNIOR BUILDING BOTTOM LEFT—ADMINISTRATION BUILDING BOTTOM RIGHT—VIEW OF BUILDINGS FROM CAMPUS

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LOYOLA COLLEGE REVIEW —ь “ЗЕ have no hesitation in ranking Alfred Noyes 3 among the first, ifnotthe | first, of living poets; for in this we are guided not aw alone by our own lim- 9) ited judgement, but b the advice of the sound- est critics on both sides of the Atlantic. On account of his high status in the literary world, we who aspire to the ' credit of culture should seek to know more about Noyes, ud xd to be able thereby to appreciate him the better. To Canadians in particular he should be of special interest at the present time, because only a few months ago he made an extensive tour of Canada and lectured on jon in all the important cities; he made the tour with the motive of wri- ting about Canada when he returned to England. But there is a third reason why Alfred Noyes should be of interest to us, and this perhaps more than any- thing else ought to make him dear to us. A few weeks previous to his departure from England for Canada, he was con- verted to the Catholic Faith. He is only one of a number of prominent writers who have embraced Catholicity in the last few years, and he is a treas- ured acquisition which the Church will find good reason to cherish. Francis Thompson, in his essay on Shelley, sorrowfully said: “Тһе Church, which was once the mother of poets no less than of saints, during the last two centuries has relinquished to aliens the chief glories of poetry, if the chief lories of holiness she has preserved for er own. Не had hopes, however, that the great god Pan would one day return to his true home. Men like Alfred Noyes are the ones who will Alfred Noyes: An Appreciation bring the wanderer home. Again, Francis Thompson expressed the true Catholic feeling, which should not be wanting today, when he said: ‘Ме ask, therefore, for a larger interest, not in purely Catholic poetry, but in poetry generally, poetry in its widest sense. The fact that Noyes, previous to his conversion, had written Боне poetry is testified by the inclusion of some of his work in Thomas Walsh's recent Catholic Anthology, in the section given to Catholic poetry written by non-Catholic poets. Apparently when the book had gone to print, Mr. Walsh had not yet learned of Noyes' conver- sion. Noyes is a distinctly modern poet, but not modern in the 'ultra-modern | sense with which we speak of the work of E. E. Cummings et al, but rather, modern in the sense that he keeps abreast of the age in which he lives, and finds genuine poetry in the realities character- istic of the twentieth century. There are still those who hold that all the great poetry has been written, and that nothing produced by our modern literary artists bears the stamp of immortality. One critic has even gone so far as to remark that “‘poetry has practically expired since the modern world no longer inspires the emotions which are proper to poetry. Among a certain class this has been the cry of every age; but litterateurs have lon ago dispelled such a doubt with regar to contemporary literature, and have unquestionably demonstrated the falsity of such a view. The present writer be- lieves that no greater proof of the falsity of such a doctrine could be advanced than a study of the poetry of Alfred Noyes. - rk