pt. 1.Tradition and experiment in modern poetry: Poetry as tradition -- Yeats and The centaur -- In memory of John Gould Fletcher -- pt. 2. Tradition versus antitradition in prose fiction: The traditional basis of Thomas Hardy's fiction -- Futurism and archaism in Toynbee and Hardy -- Theme and method in So red the rose -- pt. 3. The oral tradition: ballad, folksong, and myth: The tradition of irreverence -- Current attitudes toward folklore -- The sacred harp in the land of Eden -- The origins of our heroes -- pt. 4. The South: Why the modern South has a great literature -- In justice to so fine a country -- Mr. Cash and the proto-Dorian South -- Some day, in old Charleston -- pt. 5. Regionalism and nationalism: Still rebels, still yankees -- New York and the hinterland -- Regionalism and nationalism in American literature.