Extremes and Moderations: A Historical Archive of Los Angeles and Southern California Poetry

THE TEXT/TECH PAPERS

Anthologies

Edited by Snow Longley Housh, Roy Towner Thompson, Leslie Nelson Jennings

1930Poetry AnthologyVerse Writers’ Club Anthologies

The anthology begins with Jean Baker addressing a student and ends with Jake Zeitlin’s hushed “A Whispered Song,” a span that makes its regional claim through contrast rather than uniformity. Between them, eighty-two poems move from Eleanor Baldwin’s miniature triptych of “Mary Remembers,” “Day,” and “Night” to Hildegarde Flanner’s lean seasonal lyrics, LeRoy MacLeod’s sonnet sequence, Colin Palmerston’s desert poems, and Sarah Bixby Smith’s clipped songs of weather and gossip. Traditional quatrains, sonnets, dramatic monologues, epigrams, and freer stanza patterns share the book without settling into a single school.

Several poems test Southern California subjects against inherited forms: Nancy K. Foster sets the Mojave beside a funeral mass, Florence Bowen Hult turns the Sierra into a sequence of notations, and W. W. Robinson answers Robinson Jeffers directly. Others place literary life itself under scrutiny—Grover Jacoby writes to Emily Dickinson, Julia Boynton Green adapts the muse Euterpe, and Snow Longley Housh considers the poet’s domestic bargain. Palmerston’s original introduction continues the club’s argument from its earlier anthologies while admitting the limits imposed by haste, copyright, and incomplete knowledge of local writers. The result is a deliberately plural snapshot of 1930: polished and uneven, metropolitan and pastoral, formalist but alert to modern compression.

Reader’s Edition · Public PDF

Contents

An editorial introduction and Colin Palmerston’s original statement precede eighty-two poems by forty-seven contributors. The sequence moves from student address and devotional lyric through desert, mountain, urban, domestic, and literary subjects, concluding with Jake Zeitlin’s “A Whispered Song.”

TitleCreatorGenre / typeReader PDF page
Editorial IntroductionBrian Kim Stefanseditorial introductionreader PDF p. 4
Original IntroductionColin Palmerstonoriginal introductionreader PDF p. 6
To a StudentJean Bakerpoemreader PDF p. 13
Mary RemembersEleanor Baldwinpoemreader PDF p. 14
DayEleanor Baldwinpoemreader PDF p. 15
NightEleanor Baldwinpoemreader PDF p. 16
IronyMabel Wing Castlepoemreader PDF p. 17
AutumnalEthel Caskeypoemreader PDF p. 18
Mulberry MoonsPauline Garner Curranpoemreader PDF p. 19
A Little Tune O' TearsPauline Garner Curranpoemreader PDF p. 20
MarjorieVirginia Churchpoemreader PDF p. 21
InterceptedVirginia Churchpoemreader PDF p. 22
GwenVirginia Churchpoemreader PDF p. 23
Not Mellin's FoodVirginia Churchpoemreader PDF p. 24
DedicationJames L. Duffpoemreader PDF p. 25
CrossroadsJames L. Duffpoemreader PDF p. 26
Old GlovesBen Fieldpoemreader PDF p. 27
The MojaveNancy K. Fosterpoemreader PDF p. 28
A Funeral Mass at Saint Vincent'sNancy K. Fosterpoemreader PDF p. 29
High Stream's EndHildegarde Flannerpoemreader PDF p. 30
Summer VesperalHildegarde Flannerpoemreader PDF p. 31
Dawn PoemHildegarde Flannerpoemreader PDF p. 32
The Minor PoetEthelean Tyson Gawpoemreader PDF p. 33
A Norse Plow-Boy of the Middle WestEthelean Tyson Gawpoemreader PDF p. 34
The ProviderJulia Boynton Greenpoemreader PDF p. 35
Adaptable EuterpeJulia Boynton Greenpoemreader PDF p. 36
Frozen WoodDorothy Haddoxpoemreader PDF p. 38
MothDorothy Haddoxpoemreader PDF p. 39
AnxietyAnne Hamiltonpoemreader PDF p. 40
The Narrow StreetAnne Hamiltonpoemreader PDF p. 41
SagacityAnne Hamiltonpoemreader PDF p. 42
Autumn LeavesAlbert B. Hoxiepoemreader PDF p. 43
Sierra NotesFlorence Bowen Hultpoemreader PDF p. 44
The Poet's WifeSnow Longley Houshpoemreader PDF p. 45
In CornwallSnow Longley Houshpoemreader PDF p. 47
RequitalAnne Harleypoemreader PDF p. 48
RecoveryAnne Harleypoemreader PDF p. 49
ShadowMarion Ethel Hamiltonpoemreader PDF p. 50
To Emily DickinsonGrover Jacobypoemreader PDF p. 51
WoodsmanLeslie Nelson Jenningspoemreader PDF p. 52
Late FloweringLeslie Nelson Jenningspoemreader PDF p. 53
Love's MomentElinor Lennenpoemreader PDF p. 54
March LambLeRoy MacLeodpoemreader PDF p. 55
DrivenLeRoy MacLeodpoemreader PDF p. 56
Sonnets from "Adolescence"LeRoy MacLeodpoemreader PDF p. 57
Showain NemeshinGeraldine MacLeodpoemreader PDF p. 59
PortraitGeraldine MacLeodpoemreader PDF p. 62
Wild MustardNeeta Marquispoemreader PDF p. 63
The HomesteaderArthur Truman Merrillpoemreader PDF p. 65
Confucius SaidArthur Truman Merrillpoemreader PDF p. 66
Envy Not GraniteJohn Russell McCarthypoemreader PDF p. 67
Odd!John Russell McCarthypoemreader PDF p. 68
ConjectureJohn Russell McCarthypoemreader PDF p. 69
The House of LaurelsCarlyle MacIntyrepoemreader PDF p. 70
Galatea Gently SlumbersCarlyle MacIntyrepoemreader PDF p. 71
The Brimming CupCarlyle MacIntyrepoemreader PDF p. 72
The BeakerCarlyle MacIntyrepoemreader PDF p. 73
Javanese NightBeulah Maypoemreader PDF p. 74
AgeDorothea Moorepoemreader PDF p. 75
To A BoasterRuth Clay Pricepoemreader PDF p. 76
The ViolinistMabel W. Phillipspoemreader PDF p. 77
Seven Japanese Beauties in an Old PrintI. D. Perrypoemreader PDF p. 78
ShadowsColin Palmerstonpoemreader PDF p. 79
Consuming DesertColin Palmerstonpoemreader PDF p. 80
The Steeps of DawnLeetha Journey Probstpoemreader PDF p. 82
HappinessRoberta Rinearpoemreader PDF p. 88
JealousyRoberta Rinearpoemreader PDF p. 89
Robinson JeffersW. W. Robinsonpoemreader PDF p. 90
The Shepherd of SpringGeorgia Minerva Rowlespoemreader PDF p. 91
FateSydney King Russellpoemreader PDF p. 92
PledgeSydney King Russellpoemreader PDF p. 93
SummerHelen Molyneaux Salisburypoemreader PDF p. 94
The RefugeeHelen Molyneaux Salisburypoemreader PDF p. 95
Wind Upon My FaceSarah Bixby Smithpoemreader PDF p. 96
GossipSarah Bixby Smithpoemreader PDF p. 97
Color PrintWinifred Gray Stewartpoemreader PDF p. 98
PandoraHelen Walker Truesdellpoemreader PDF p. 99
EpilogueHelen Walker Truesdellpoemreader PDF p. 100
FinalHelen Walker Truesdellpoemreader PDF p. 101
Calf in the GoldenrodJulia Van der Veerpoemreader PDF p. 102
Do You Know What?David Weissmanpoemreader PDF p. 103
PrintsWinifred Waldronpoemreader PDF p. 105
HoofsWinifred Waldronpoemreader PDF p. 106
A Whispered SongJake Zeitlinpoemreader PDF p. 108
Contributors
Publication details
Subjects and editorial notes

Subjects

Keywords

Anthology of Southern California Verse Verse Writers’ Club Primavera Press Snow Longley Housh Jake Zeitlin Los Angeles 1930

Continuity notes

Part of the shared Anthologies and Documents collection.

Edition note

The formatted edition presents the selected source text in a stable, searchable reading format with modern navigation. Source scans remain private editorial evidence and are not part of the public upload.

Source note

Metadata and contents were checked against the 109-page formatted PDF and the identified source scan files where available.

Rights and citation

Copyright notice

Copyright in public-domain source texts has expired in the United States. Copyright in later works and new editorial matter remains with the respective authors, editors, publishers, or successors.

Rights status

Public Domain

Rights basis

The original 1930 publication is in the public domain in the United States. New editorial introduction, apparatus, and design were prepared in 2026.

Suggested citation

Housh, Snow Longley, Roy Towner Thompson, and Leslie N. Jennings, eds. Anthology of Southern California Verse. Primavera Press, 1930. Text/Tech Anthologies and Documents, reader’s edition, 2026.