T.E. Hulme - Fragments & Other Poems

T.E. Hulme - Fragments & Other Poems
Public Domain Poets #3

'Fragments & Other Poems' brings together a small collection of around 30 of Hulme's poems, including a selection of 'fragments' (published posthumously in 1921) and verses from 'The Complete Poetical Works of T.E. Hulme' (first published as an afterword to Ezra Pound's 'Ripostes', in 1912). New edition designed, edited, and selected by Dick Whyte.

In the quiet land
There is a secret unknown fire.
Suddenly rocks shall melt
And the old roads mislead.

Across the familiar road
There is a deep cleft.
I must stand and draw back.
In the cool land
There is a secret fire.

T.E. Hulme (1883-1917) studied mathematics, and developed an interest in both philosophy and poetry in his early 20s. In 1908 he joined The Poets' Club, a small group of experimental English poets interested in the 'new verse', particularly influenced by vers libre (i.e. 'free verse'), and the Japanese poetic forms of tanka and haiku. While there, Hulme met the poets F.S. Flint and Edward Storer, as well as a young Ezra Pound, and began writing poetry and poetic theory. Hulme left for World War I in 1914, and was killed in 1917 when he was directly struck by a large shell. Hulme published just 6 poems in his lifetime, followed by a collection of poetic 'fragments', unearthed 4 years after his death. These 'fragments' also include many compressed poems, which clearly draw on haiku and tanka as models, as in this couplet;

Old houses were scaffolding once,
and workmen whistling.

Public Domain Press is dedicated to producing contemporary editions of out-of-print poets and poetry collections, particularly with regard to compressed and fragmented "free" verse from the late-1800s and early-1900s. All poems start as facsimiles - to preserve the original fonts - which are then cleaned up, edited for consistency, and spaciously laid-out, adorned with borders, illustrations, and ornaments from the books and magazines they originally appeared in. These are not "reprints" of previously existing books, but newly crafted collections, lovingly edited from public domain material, for the serious poetry lover.