And Joy whose hand is ever at his lips,
Bidding adieu;
but with the very thought of the brevity is coupled an exquisite sense
of both beauty and joy in ever fresh renewal, so that the reader knows a
subtle thrill of pleasure even at the mention of pain. Poe's proposition
that poetry should be restricted to sorrowful themes probably arose from
a more or less conscious feeling that the expression of despair is the
surest means of conveying vividly a sense of the value of what is gone;
and whether Poe went so far as to realize it or not the fact is that
the passion of loss most surely expresses the possible bliss of
possession. Even when it would, art cannot deny the worth and the glory
of existence. The word of denial is chanted to a strain which inspires
and affirms. Even when he would be most pessimistic the genuine poet
must perforce preach in deathless tones the gospel of optimism.
Fourth, poetry is the original utterance of the ideas of the world. It
is easy and not uncommon to regard the art of the poet as having little
to do with the practical conduct of life; yet there is no man in
civilization who does not hold opinions and theories, thoughts and
beliefs, which he owes to the poets. Thought is not devised in the
marketplace. What thinkers have divined in secret is there shown openly
by its results. Every poet of genius remakes the world. He leaves the
stamp of his imagination upon the whole race, and philosophers reason,
scientists explore, money-changers scheme, tradesmen haggle, and farmers
plough or sow, all under conditions modified by what has been divulged
in song. The poet is the great thinker, whose thought, translated,
scattered, diluted, spilled upon the ground and gathered up again, is
the inspiration and the guide of mankind.
If this seem extravagant, think for a little. Reflect in what
civilization differs from savagery; consider not the accidental and
outward circumstance, but the fundamental causes upon which these
depend. If you endeavor to find adequately expressed the ideals of
honor, of truth, of love, and of aspiration which are behind all the
development of mankind, it is to the poets that you turn instinctively.
It is possible to go farther than this. Knowledge is but a perception of
relations. The conception of the universe is too vast to be assimilated
all at once, but every perception of the way in which one part is
related to another, one fact to another, one thing to the rest, helps
toward a realization of the ultimate truth. It is the poet who first
discerns and proclaims the relations of those facts which the experience
of the race accumulates. From the particular he deduces the general,
from the facts he perceives the principles which underlie them. The
general, that is, in its relation to that emotional consciousness which
is the real life of man; the principles which take hold not upon
material things only, but upon the very conditions of human existence.
All abstract truth has sprung from poetry as rain comes from the sea.
Changed, diffused, carried afar and often altered almost beyond
recognition, the thought of the world is but the manifestation of the
imagination of the world; and it has found its first tangible expression
in poetry.
Fifth, poetry is the instructor in beauty. No small thing is human
happiness, and human happiness is nourished on beauty. Poetry opens the
eyes of men to loveliness in earth and sky and sea, in flower and weed,
in tree and rock and stream, in things common and things afar alike. It
is by the interpretation of the poet that mankind in general is aware of
natural beauty; and it is hardly less true that the beauty of moral and
emotional worlds would be practically unknown were it not for these
high interpreters. The race has first become aware of all ethereal and
elusive loveliness through the song of the poet, sensitive to see and
skillful to tell. For its beauty in and of itself, and for its
revelation of the beauty of the universe, both material and intangible,
poetry is to the world a boon priceless and peerless.
Sixth, poetry is the creator and preserver of ideals. The ideal is the
conception of the existence beyond what is of that which may and should
be. It is the measure of the capability of desire. "Man's desires are
limited by his perceptions," says William Blake; "none can desire what
he has not perceived." What man can receive, what it is possible for him
to enjoy, is limited to what he is able to wish for. The ideal is the
highest point to which his wish has been able to attain, and upon the
advancement of this point must depend the increasing of the
possibilities of individual experience. With the growth of ideals,
moreover, comes the constant, however slow, realization of them. So true
is this that it almost affords a justification of the belief that
whatever mankind really desires must in the end be realized from the
very fact that it is desired. Be that as it may, an ideal is the
perception of a higher reality. It is the recognition of essential as
distinguished from accidental truth; the comprehension of the eternal
principle which must underlie every fact. It is a realization of the
meaning of existence; a piercing through the transient appearance to the
fundamental and the enduring. The reader who finds himself caught away
like St. Paul to the third heaven--"whether in the body I cannot tell;
or whether out of the body I cannot tell"--has no need to ask whether
life is merely eating and drinking, getting and spending, marrying and
giving in marriage. He has for that transcendent moment lived the real
life; he has tasted the possibilities of existence; he has for one
glorious instant realized the ideal. When a poem has carried him out of
himself and the material present which we call the real, then the verse
has been for him as a chariot of fire in which he has been swirled
upward to the very heart of the divine.
When not actually under the influence of this high exalting power of
poetry most men have a strange reluctance to admit that it is possible
for them to be so moved; and thus it may easily happen that what has
just been said may seem to the reader extravagant and florid. There are
happily few, however, to whom there have not come moments of inner
illumination, few who cannot if they will call up times when the
imagination has carried them away, and the delight of being so borne
above the actual was a revelation and a joy not easily to be put into
word. Recalling such an experience, you will not find it difficult to
understand what is meant by the claim that poetry creates in the mind of
man an ideal which in turn it justifies also.
Lastly and above all, the use of poetry is--poetry.
'Tis the deep music of the rolling world
Kindling within the strings of the waved air
Æolian modulations.
It is vain to endeavor to put into word the worth and office of poetry.
At the last we are brought face to face with the fact that anything
short of itself is inadequate to do it justice. To read a single page of
a great singer is more potent than to pore over volumes in his praise. A
single lyric puts to shame the most elaborate analysis or the most
glowing eulogy; in the end there is no resource but to appeal to the
inner self which is the true man; since in virtue of what is most deep
and noble in the soul, each may perceive for himself that poetry is its
own supreme justification; that there is no need to discuss the relation
of poetry to life, since poetry is the expression of life in its best
and highest possibilities.
INDEX
Abbot, J. S. C., "Rollo," 201.
Addison, 66.
Advertising, 168-170.
Æschylus, 149.
Aldrich, T. B., "Story of a Bad Boy," 11, 15.
Allusions, Biblical, 98-101;
to folk-lore, 106;
historical, 103-106;
literary, 107-108;
mythological, 101-103.
Amiel, "Journal Intime," 7.
Amiot, 90.
Andersen, Hans Christian, 196.
Apprehension, 74.
Ariosto, 143.
Art, conventions in, 89;
deals with the typical, 6;
end of, 87;
good, 22;
origin of, 3-5;
sanity of, 174;
truth in, 206;
truth of, 209;
_vs._ science, 32.
Artist, office of, 207.
Asbjörnsen, 196.
Augustine, St., "Confessions," 7.
Austen, Jane, 189.
Ballads, 222.
Balzac, 189.
Barrie, J. M., 211.
Bible, 101, 140, 142, 145, 197;
allusions to, 98-101;
as a classic, 143-147;
books of, characterized, 146;
quoted, 100, 228;
Revised Version _vs._ King James, 146.
Black, William, 13, 211.
Blackmore, R. D., 211.
Blake, William, 54, 66;
quoted, 58, 121, 252.
Boccaccio, 143.
Breeding, good, 204.
Brontë, Charlotte, 189.
Broughton, Rhoda, 185.
Browning, Mrs. E. B., quoted, 8, 132, 225, 241;
"Sonnets from the Portuguese," 7-9.
Browning Robert, 92, 155, 179, 180;
"Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came," 48;
lack of melody, 236;
obscure in allusions, 106;
"Prospice," 13;
quoted, 244;
"The Ring and the Book," 180.
Bunyan, John, "Pilgrim's Progress," 129.
Burke, Edmund, quoted, 229.
Burns, quoted, 234.
Byron, Lord, 11, 12;
quoted, 104.
Cable, G. W., 211.
Carleton, Will, "Farm Ballads," 223.
Carlyle, Thomas, 42;
quoted, 244.
Carroll, Lewis, quoted, 236.
Cervantes, 133, 140, 143;
"Don Quixote," 129, 189.
Character, 56.
Chaucer, Geoffrey, 78, 116, 123, 124, 140, 142, 146;
as a classic, 151-152;
Lowell on, 114;
quoted, 114.
Children, education of, 193-196, 223;
reading of, 195-198.
Civilization, 204.
Classic, defined, 127.
Classics, 176, 177;
cause of the neglect of, 132-134;
test of, 130.
"Clerk Saunders," 222.
Coleridge, S. T., 54, 66;
"Hymn Before Sunrise," etc., 75;
quoted, 145, 237, 247.
Collins, William, 66.
Comprehension, 74.
Conventions, 88-92.
Cowper, William, quoted, 79.
Crawford, F. M., 211.
Critics, use of, 70.
Dante, 58, 78, 140, 142, 146;
as a classic, 150-151.
Darwin, Charles, 55.
D'Aulnoy, Countess, 196.
D'Aurevilly, Barbey, 169.
Defoe, 66;
"Robinson Crusoe," 197.
De Gasparin, Madame, "The Near and the Heavenly Horizons," 48.
De Maupassant, Guy, 182.
Dekker, Thomas, quoted, 115.
Dickens, Charles, 179, 180, 189;
his metrical prose, 233.
Doyle, A. Conan, 211;
quoted, 134.
Dryden, John, 66, 146;
quoted, 152.
"Duchess," The, 13, 185.
Dumas, A., _père_, 182, 189;
"D'Artagnan Romances," 27, 92.
Edgeworth, Maria, 201.
Education, use of poetry in, 223.
Eliot, George, 180, 187, 189.
Emerson, R. W., 179, 180;
on translations, 148;
quoted, 43, 47, 103, 225, 241.
Emotion, 241-245;
fashion in, 15;
genuine, 68;
tests of genuineness of, 10-20.
Etiquette, 204.
Euripides, 149.
Experience the test of art, 10.
Fairy stories, 196-197.
Fiction, truth in, 188.
Fielding, Henry, 66.
Folk-lore, 223.
Folk-songs, 137-139, 221-222.
French authors, 170.
Fuller, Margaret, 86.
Genius, 20, 250.
Gibbon, Edward, quoted, 74.
Gladstone, W. E., 168.
Goethe, quoted, 36, 178.
Goldsmith, Oliver, 66.
Gower, John, 116.
Gray, Thomas, quoted, 103.
Greek literature, 149, 150.
Greek sculpture, 150.
Greek tragedians, 143, 148.
Greeks, sanity of the, 148.
Grimm, The Brothers, 194, 196.
Haggard, Rider, "She," 26.
Hannay, James, quoted, 57.
Hardy, Thomas, "Far from the Madding Crowd," 181;
"The Return of the Native," 181, 208;
"Tess of the D'Urbervilles," 181;
"Under the Greenwood Tree," 181.
Harris, J. C., "Uncle Remus," 197.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 179, 180, 189;
Arthur Dimmesdale, 201;
"The Marble Faun," 92;
quoted, 83;
"The Scarlet Letter," 2, 13, 201, 208, 214;
"Tanglewood Tales," 197;
"The Wonder-Book," 197.
Hazlitt, William, quoted, 113.
"Helen of Kirconnell," 13, 138.
Homer, 58, 78, 123, 131, 140, 142, 146, 151;
as a classic, 147-150.
Hope, Anthony, 211.
Hugo, Victor, 189;
"Les Misérables," 92, 208.
Hunt, Leigh, quoted, 84.
Hunt, W. M., quoted, 62.
Ibsen, 172, 173, 177;
"The Doll's House," 18;
"Ghosts," 173.
Imagination, 93, 246-248, 253;
and thought, 251;
creative, 111;
the realizing faculty, 19;
reality of, 54.
Imaginative language, defined, 230-231.
Imaginative quality, test of, 93.
Impressionism, 69.
Interest, temporary and permanent, 127-129.
Irreverence, 87.
Isaiah, 146, 150.
James, Henry, quoted, 203.
Jewett, Sarah O., Miss, 211.
Job, 146, 230.
Johnson, Samuel, quoted, 84.
Jonson, Ben, quoted, 83.
Judd, Sylvester, "Margaret," 30.
Keats, John, 54, 92, 112;
letters to Miss Brawne, 62;
"Ode on a Grecian Urn," 17;
quoted, 94, 102, 249.
Kingsley, Charles, 189.
Kipling, Rudyard, 182;
"Jungle Books," 197, 213.
Laboulaye, Édouard, 196.
Lamb, Charles, 133;
quoted, 196.
Language, imaginative, defined, 230-231.
Lear, Edward, 235.
Lessing, "Nathan the Wise," 48.
Lincoln, Abraham, "Gettysburg Address," 112.
Literature, books about, 65-68;
convincing, 14;
defined, 1-32;
didactic, 201;
early, 136;
eighteenth century, 65, 66;
gossip about, 62-65;
history of, 65;
juvenile, 193-195;
morbid, 20, 177, 178;
office of, 46-59;
relative rank, 31;
study of, defined, 33-44, 60-68;
study of, difficult, 72;
talk about, 40-43;
a unit, 154;
_vs._ science, 55.
"Littell's Living Age," 39.
Longfellow, H. W., 181.
Lowell, J. R., 67;
quoted, 78, 102, 114, 173, 216.
Macaulay, T. B., 220;
quoted, 207.
Maclaren, Ian, 211, 213.
Maeterlinck, 172.
Magazines, 163-166.
Malory, Thomas, "Morte d'Arthur," 196.
Marcus Aurelius, "Reflections," 7.
Marlowe, Christopher, "The Jew of Malta," 76.
Melody, 235-240.
Meredith, George, "The Ordeal of Richard Feverel," 92, 181, 208.
Metre, 227-230.
Milton, John, 108, 140, 143;
"L'Allegro," 106;
"Il Penseroso," 107;
"Lycidas," 77;
"On the Morning of Christ's Nativity," 100;
quoted, 63, 113, 163.
Modernity, 169.
Molière, 140, 143.
Montaigne, 133, 140, 143.
Morbidity, 140.
Morley, John, 67.
"Mother Goose," 96, 221.
Mulock, D. M., 189.
Music, barbaric, 90;
Chinese, 90.
Musset, A. de, "Mlle. de Maupin," 177.
Newspapers, 162, 163.
Nordau, Max, "Degeneration," 170;
quoted, 171.
Notes, use of, 84, 109.
Notoriety, 128, 172.
Novels, realistic, 209;
_vs._ poetry, 245;
with a theory, 167.
Novelty, 134.
"Old Oaken Bucket," The, 17.
Originality, 170.
Ouida, 17, 41.
Page, T. N., 211.
Pater, Walter, "Marius the Epicurean," 25.
Periodicals, 162-166.
Petrarch, 143.
Philology not the study of literature, 79.
Plato, quoted, 234.
Plutarch, letter to his wife, 50.
Poe, E. A., "Lygeia," 22;
quoted, 104, 105, 237, 249;
Tales, 21.
Poetry, defined, 227;
form is essential, 236, 239;
how different from prose, 231, 232;
office in education, 223;
office of, 245-252;
optimism of, 248-250;
origin, 5;
reading of, 244;
_vs._ novels, 245.
Pope, Alexander, 66.
Prose, how different from poetry, 231-232;
language of, 231.
Public guided by the few, 10.
Quincy, Josiah, 50.
Rabelais, 133, 140.
Reade, Charles, 189.
Reading, first, 85;
for amusement, 210;
measure of character, 159;
serious matter, 87;
should be a pleasure, 71-73;
test of, 86;
works as units, 81.
Realism, 69, 209.
Reverence, 87.
Rhythm, 220, 221, 227-229.
Richardson, Samuel, 66.
Rossetti, D. G., 181;
"Sister Helen," 119, 120.
Rousseau, "Confessions," 7.
Ruskin, John, quoted, 95.
Russell, W. Clark, 13, 211.
Sanity, 140, 174.
Schopenhauer, quoted, 63, 227.
Science _vs._ art, 32.
Science _vs._ literature, case of Darwin, 55.
Scott, Sir Walter, 189.
Sculpture, Aztec, 89;
Greek, 89.
Sensationalism, 26.
Sentiment, 16, 157;
defined, 15.
Sentimentality, 16, 139, 157;
defined, 15.
Shakespeare, William, 3, 35, 41, 53, 58, 65, 77, 86,
92, 93, 107, 118, 124, 133, 140, 143, 145, 147,
173, 214, 216;
as a classic, 152-153;
condensation of, 93;
"Cymbeline," 75;
epithets of, 112, 231;
for children, 197;
"Hamlet," 81, 215;
"King Lear," 81;
"The Merchant of Venice," 115-118;
"Othello," 81;
quoted, 102, 104, 113, 114, 115, 229, 231, 239;
"Sonnets," 8, 239.
Shelley, P. B., 92, 131;
quoted, 254;
"Stanzas Written in Dejection," etc., 17.
Shorthouse, J. H., "John Inglesant," 29.
Sienkiewicz, 182;
"The Deluge," 92.
Sincerity, 12-15.
Smile, sardonic, 95.
Sophocles, 149.
Spenser, Edmund, 123, 124, 143, 197.
Standards, 141;
of criticism, 161.
Steele, Sir Richard, 66.
Stephen, Leslie, 67.
Stevenson, R. L., 181;
"Kidnapped," 197;
quoted, 57;
"Treasure Island," 27, 197.
Stockton, Frank, "The Adventures of Captain Horn," 27.
Story, happy ending of a, 215;
the short, 211-214.
Stowe, Mrs. H. B., on Byron, 62.
Suckling, Sir John, quoted, 106.
Suggestion, 111-114, 118-120, 230, 235.
Suttner, Baroness von, 161.
Swift, Jonathan, 66;
"Gulliver's Travels," 197.
Swinburne, A. C., 181;
"Atalanta in Calydon," 228;
excess of melody, 236.
Symbolism, 69.
Sympathy between reader and author, 82.
Talleyrand, quoted, 38.
Tasso, 143.
Taste a measure of character, 3.
Technical excellence, 25.
Tennyson, Alfred, 92, 155, 179, 180, 232;
"Idylls of the King," 180;
"In Memoriam," 7, 50;
quoted, 101, 249.
Thackeray, W. M., 42, 179, 180, 189;
Beatrix Esmond, 92;
Colonel Newcome, 13;
"Henry Esmond," 208;
Major Pendennis, 201;
"Pendennis," 200.
Titian, 42-43.
Tolstoi, 172, 177;
"The Kreutzer Sonata," 20, 214;
"War and Peace," 29.
Traill, H. D., quoted, 190.
Translations, use of, 147, 148.
Trollope, Anthony, 180, 189.
Tupper, M. F., 3.
Turgenieff, 182.
"Uncle Tom's Cabin," 160.
Vedas, The, 145.
Verlaine, 22.
"Waly, waly," 138.
Wendell, Barrett, quoted, 42.
Weyman, S. J., 211.
Whittier, J. G., 181.
Wilkins, Miss M. E., 211, 213.
Wordsworth, William, 54, 66;
"The Daffodils," 17;
quoted, 108, 225, 238, 239, 241, 243;
"To Lucy," 13.
Zend-Avesta, The, 145.
Zola, 172, 173, 177;
"L'Assommoir," 173.
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Transcriber's Notes.
The advertisement "Books by Arlo Bates" which was originally before
the title page, has been moved to the back, after the index.
Phrases in italics are indicated by _italics_.
Words in the text which were in small-caps were converted to normal
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The "OE" ligature is indicated by "OE" (e.g. OEdipus, pg. 107).
A missing closing quote was inserted after the phrase
'worthy of his attention?' (pg. 70)
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(Ode _to_ a Grecian Urn)
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End of Project Gutenberg's Talks on the study of literature., by Arlo Bates