The three and a half decades before the first World War are among the most interesting and most important in the history of British poetry. The poets in this DLB volume, taken together, represent the last flowering of distinctly British poetry. Some of the most talented English poets of the late 19th century grew increasingly dissatisfied with what they considered to be the faults of Victorian poetry-the ornamental diction, the concern with female beauty, and other ornate characteristics of the works. In their basic attitude toward life, which grew increasingly realistic, and in their experiments with new poetic techniques, they laid the groundwork in theory and practice for the poetic revolution which has had far-reaching consequences, even today.

44 entries include: W. H. Davies, F. S. Flint, Thomas Hardy, T. E. Hulme, James Joyce, Rudyard Kipling, D. H. Lawrence, Harold Monro, James Stephens and Oscar Wilde.