fact, containing in it the raw material of Poetry, which is to say that if the emotional beholder have the gift of poetical composition, he may make a poem out of the scene, whilst the nonemotional beholder could make nothing out of it if he continued his attempts till Doomsday. A silk purse, it is well known, is not obtainable from the porcine ear, nor is there any possibility of Poetry being composed by any person destitute of feeling. Feeling is of the very essence of Poetry. 15. The departure of emigrants.-Or take the departure of an emigrant from his home. Such a scene, either to the principals themselves or to the well-endowed observer, is very different from going through the Multiplication Table, or demonstrating some Euclidian proposition. It is much more than a cold intellectual process. It gives rise to an emotional stirring of Human Nature to its very depths, and sometimes rouses the feelings to a painful pitch of intensity. Scottish Literature furnishes fine examples of poetry derived from this source, particularly in exquisite songs such as "Lochaber no more,' "Gae bring to me a pint o' Wine," "The Sun rises bright in France," and their like. In every long goodbye " there is this stirring of emotion, as well as the mere cognition of leave-taking. More, the stirring of the emotion is the sacred part of the leave-taking. Therein lies the possibility of the potentiality of overt Poetry. 66 16. The supposed parting between Brutus and Cassius. Take the parting between Brutus and Cassius on the field of Philippi, as supposed and depicted by Shakespeare: "Cassius. If we do lose this battle, then is this The very last time we shall speak together: What are you then determined to do? Brutus. Even by the rule of that philosophy Cassius. Then, if we lose this battle, Brutus. No, Cassius, no: think not, thou noble Roman, He bears too great a mind. But this same day If we do meet again, why, we shall smile; If not, why then, this parting was well made. If we do meet again, we'll smile indeed; If not, 'tis true this parting was well made." 5 1 66 It would take one fortified with a wooden head against all the Muses not to be touched by this scene: Lively feelings of situations and power to express them," says Goethe, these "make the poet. "To describe any scene well, the poet must make the bosom of a man his camera obscura, and look at it through this, then would he see poetically," says Richter. We may depend upon it, I think, that in the dramatic passage just quoted, the heart of the great dramatist himself thrilled with real emotion as he wrote this living scene, although it was only figured in his own imagination. Without such emotion the Fountains of Helicon would cease to flow. 17. A poor urchin at a confectioner's shop window.-Life is full of emotional influences. Here is a poor tattered urchin gazing wistfully and hungrily upon the viands set forth in a con 1 'Conversations with Eckermann,' p. 159. 2 Carlyle, Essays,' Vol. iv. p. 96. See also Véron, Esthetics,' pp. 89-90 and note. And a critic in 'The Times Literary Supplement' aptly says, "The great artist is one who can charge a figure with all the passions, who can make people or things expressive by his very manner of representing them."-5th January 1922. fectioner's shop window. What shall What shall happen to the observer with whom the matter ends in cold observation? Unless he feel a glow of compassion over the scene, we beg leave to regard such observer as the merest fraction of a man. His head might be unwrongfully drafted for service into the window of a wig-shop. Observation, indeed, must precede feeling, but it would be better almost not to observe certain things at all than to observe them and not feel. Poetry remains a dead letter to any person until he not only knows but feels. All high things probably remain a dead letter to him until he not only knows but feels. Feeling, capability of profound emotion, is perhaps the very soul not only of all poetry but of all greatness. It is par excellence the work of the poet to address himself to the emotional part of our nature. 18. Poetical and prose statements. - Here is Shakespeare's way of describing a harsh and niggardly person : "My master is of churlish disposition, And little recks to find the way to Heaven 'As You Like It,' ii. 4. The mere prose statement would be: "My master is unkind and churlish," carrying with it a minimum infusion of the feeling of contemplative reprobation. Henry the Fifth says to Grey and Scroop: "You must not dare for shame to talk of mercy : -'King Henry Fifth,' ii. 2. A bald prose remonstrance might have run: "You are but contradicting and condemning yourselves." By rhetorising his argument a little, he infuses that glow of feeling into it which lifts it above the level of prose, and renders it dramatic and poetical. Welcoming the approach of war, the fiery Hotspur thus expresses himself:— "The mailed Mars shall on his altar sit Up to the ears in blood." -1 'Henry Fourth,' iv. 1. Worcester considers it impossible to patch up a successful reconciliation with Henry : "For treason is but trusted like the fox, -Ib., v. 2. Buckingham, in 'Richard the Third,' describes a lady past her prime as― A toiler in prose could not do it so happily. In 'Hero and Leander,' Marlowe says: Who ever loved, that loved not at first sight ? ” In 'The Queen of Corinth' Beaumont and Fletcher obtest : "Joys as winged dreams fly past: Why should sadness longer last? In these verses we can scarcely fail to perceive a genuine infusion of feeling. Or take a ballad couplet from Thomas the Rhymer' :— "And see not ye that bonnie road That winds about the fernie brae ?" Contrast with a prose statement-" the road over the hill." There are those, of course, who are E stone-deaf to the music and charm of beautiful thought-who would scarcely detect the difference between the strains of Amphion's lyre and a policeman's rattle. 19. All poetry originates in the affections of the poet.-Notice again, for instance, how Wordsworth, in "The Excursion," thinks of the ruined cottage which has been the home of the gentlehearted Margaret : "Oh, Sir, the good die first, And they whose hearts are dry as summer dust, Hath blessed poor Margaret for her gentle looks, She is dead, 1 The external facts are there, of course, but they are rendered rich and beautiful by the gently reminiscent and mournful spirit in which they are presented by the poet; and thus presented they can scarcely fail to make us participate in the poet's emotions. Thus it may be taken that all poetry originates in the affections of the poet, in the profound interest with which he looks upon nature, in the awe which he feels concerning the Divine, in the sympathy by which he is animated towards his fellow-creatures. Always take care that your "flowers of eloquence" grow out of a living stem. 20. Scene at a street fire.-Take another kind of scene. A fire has broken out at night in a poor street house. Excitement arises; people gather. In the confusion it is not apprehended at first that anybody is in danger, but shortly it is realised that there is a poor family in the house. For a 1 The Wanderer.' |