Thus new generations of poets, by their original use of language and its rhythms, re-create old themes. James Elroy Flecker, who died in l9l5, carries the hope of this progression into the future in his lines “To a Poet a thousand Years Hence”: he trusts that, in spite of all the developments of technology, poets will still feel a kinship with earlier writers, and will still interpret human life to man, just as Homer did three thousand years ago. earlier writers, and will still interpret human life to man, just as Homer did three thousand years ago.
And wrote this sweet archaic song
Send you my words for messengers
The way I shall not pass along.I care not if you bridge the seas,
Or ride secure the cruel sky,
Or build consummate palaces
Of metal or of masonry.
But have you wine and music still,
And statues and a bright-eyed love,
And foolish thoughts of good and ill,
And prayers to them who sit above?
That falls at eve our fancies blow,
And old Maeonides the blind
Said it three thousand years ago.O friend unseen, unborn, unknown,
Student of our sweet English tongue,
Read out my words at night, alone:
I was a poet, I was young.
Since I can never see your face,
And never shake you by the hand,
I send my soul through time and space
To greet you. You will understand.