The West in American verse

The rich field of western poetry, as a significant part of American verse, has been practically untilled by historians and critics of literature. At the present time there are no anthologies that include more than one or two of the many types of our western poetry, and no comprehensive studies of this important phase of our literature. The subject deserves extensive and thoughtful investigation. In the following study I have endeavored to make some real contribution to this important theme by presenting for the first time a comprehensive outline of the unorganized material of unrealized magnitude. It is my hope that I may thus provide suggestive guidance for the eventual writing of an ever-growing chapter in the history of American literature.