“Once upon a time, when man was new in the woods of the world, when his feet were scarred with jungle thorns and his hands were red with the blood of beasts, a great king rose who gathered his neighbors together, and subdued the wandering tribes...”
—Harriet Monroe, “As It Was”, October 1912
Volume 1 Number 1 of Poetry magazine.
SLIDESHOW: View a Slideshow of Vol. 1 No. 1.
When Poetry's first issue appeared in October 1912, the fifty-one-year-old Monroe could not have foreseen the magazine's impact. But it was exactly as if a bomb had exploded, and nothing would ever look, or sound, the same in American poetry again.
Originally Published: April 1, 2005
From the Archive: Vol. 1 No. 1