[Neihardt's] youthful lyrics show his attentiveness to poetic forms; testing meters and rhyme schemes, he experimented with free verse and chant forms of the Omahas, as well as rhythm and sound combinations. By the end of his lyric period he had rejected the influence of Whitman, abandoned free verse, and modified the super-sonics of Poe and Swinburne that affected him temporarily. In his matured poetic technique he shows most clearly the influence of F.W.H. Myers' theory that rhythm and sound, through the manipulations of vowel and consonant combinations, pause and stress, create an emotional overtone to reinforce the mood and sense of poetry by releasing a subconscious human response unbounded by century or geography. From his self-taught study of Greek Neihardt worked for compression of images in a disciplined economy of expression fostered by the use of rhyme. He thought that the same poem, written in unrhymed verse and then in rhymed, would be shorter in the rhymed version. Only after long, arduous apprenticeship did he consider himself ready to undertake an epic. (pp. 314-15)
However closely Neihardt's abilities and preparation met the requirements of Goethe and Vida for an epic poet, whether he actually achieved the American epic—or an American epic—is an entirely different question entailing all the perils of prediction. Early critics like William Rose Benet [see excerpt above] and others, thought he had produced an enduring work; some unhesitatingly pronounced him the American Homer and assigned a permanent place in literature to the Cycle. The verdict was not unanimous; some critics, carping chiefly about points of style, conceded narrative power but renounced Homeric comparisons. Harriet Monroe, in particular, disapproved outspokenly when The Song of Three Friends won the American poetry prize in 1920 [see excerpt above], but Harriet Monroe's pronouncements about Neihardt after their quarrel in 1913 must be read with some reservations. Critics have concurred amazingly well on Neihardt's devotion to his task, his narrative and descriptive powers, and the authenticity of his settings; Arthur Murray Kay called him the kind of authority film producers must consult for information. Critics have, however, questioned the right of the Cycle to status as the American epic on grounds of flaws in style and structure. Kenneth Rothwell, for example, judged the Cycle only a "memorable document in the unfinished search for an American epic," although it succeeded "as well as any other American epic as being an Astoriad [see excerpt above]." Kay conceded a "genuine epic temper" and considered Neihardt above the "popular and household poets," but agreed with Harriet Monroe that it was not the epic of the West.
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