Along with being a poet, Harriet Monroe was an editor, literary critic, as well as founder of Poetry magazine. Some of her poetry was published in this magazine in January of 1927, a year that we have briefly touched on in class the past few days. She was more notable for her curation of this magazine than for her poetry, but she is still a huge player in the modern poetry movement. Of the magazine Poetry, Laura Ingram wrote, “The abundant richness of this movement might well have been less spectacular without the encouragement and vitality which Poetry offered in those years when young poets were seeking to break the bonds of traditionalism and to create a new poetic voice for the modern age.”
Harriet Monroe is probably not as notable today in the modern poetic movement because her poetry was not widely known, rather her literary magazine was an outlet for the more widely known poets to find their voice. She was a strong supporter of Ezra Pound, H.D., William Carlos Williams, Wallace Stevens, and more.
By self-starting Poetry magazine in Chicago in September of 1912, Monroe created an incredible successful publication that was mainly so because of her editorial work. Monroe was able to have an eye for quality poetry and high art, without letting her personal preferences get in the way. E.L. Masters wrote of Monroe, “Miss Monroe, both as editor and as creator, has done so much for the art of poetry, in the several capacities of encouraging beginners and by way of setting a high example in poetical production, that any volume of hers commands attention.”
Harriet Monroe
Monroe believed every poet was worth hearing and created an “open door” policy of allowing everyone who wanted to be heard to be able to. Her goal was to allow all poems a chance because she believed all modern poets should have a voice.