The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1874-03-26
The PraeEieal ugeg Of Poetry.

Every body rejOicas when q lazy fell
low is compelled to work. It gives su-
pTeme satisfaction to see an habituai
shirk effectually c1rnered. The most
economical and conscientious will now
and then rejoice at the destruction or
injury of the most beautiful fabrics, II
they have seemed to give any factitiOus
importance to the body they covered.
The neat kids, the shiny boots, the fine
brOadcloth, never give their wearer so
keen pleasure as they afTor1 to his
homespun aDd hard-worked neiehhor
when any contingency compelling him
to put forth his strength in some meni-
al occupation, splits the kids, muddies
the boot, and rumples the broadcloth.
/ suppose it Is on this principle that
all those good, sensible, practical
people who consider poetry the natural
ioafeE of literature, seize every oppor-
tunity TO put it to some homely use,
and seem to delight in seeing it har-
messed down TO plain. healthy moral,
or made 20 express a geographical or
meteorological fact. The despiser of
Tennyson, and ignorer of Whittier, in-
variably resorts to
''Thirty days hath September,
April, june and HovemI er,
when he wishes to verify his dates. He
looks forth from his window, and dis
Germs the signs of the tky with NUT
tered
Evening rcd and morning gray
Takes the Traveller on his way"
He even regulates his household econ
omy with such questionable synopsis as
"A stitch in time
Saves nine"
His children are taught their first les
sons of thrift in the couplets-
''See a ir and let il lay.
And you'll ,aave bad luck all day;
See pin and pick 1t up,
And all the day you'll have good luck.
As often as there is funeral in his fam
ily, he searches the hymn-book for q
rhyme to be placed ON the tombstone
and, If the event calls ont few origi-
nal stauzas from some local muse, the
copy is preseI we'd forever in the family
scrap-book.
It is but a few years since one of these
geniuses, who periodically burst upon
the public schools with a scheme of
learning, so sugared aud honeyed that
the children cry for it, turned " Peter
Pariey's geography into verse, and set
thousands of classes TO singing, in con-
cert, complete list of bays, rivers, capes
and capitals. He was followed by one
who developed the same idea in the
realm of philosophy, and whose crown
ing triumph was tbe couplet by which
he taught the order of the colors of the
rainbow
'On nnemory's tablet these shal live,
While we can spell the word R-O-Y-G-B-I-V."
But more troublesome TO remember
than dates, facts, and geographical sta
tistics, yet more mortifying to forget, 4
are the requirements of etiquette. The
completest victory of those who lash +
solid facts to buoyant poetry, that the
whole may float gracefully in the mem
ory, has been achieved by a genius who
reduces the whole science TO plain rules
and puts every rule in rhyme. L7ndor's
couplet-
''That is foolish who snpposes
Those dogs are i'll that have hot nOses"-
was one of the accidental touches which |
so often precede q great discovery. The |
ripper genius grasps the principle, and /
gives IL q complete application. Thus /
we read
a. rTis pity il ven have a cold,
But worse IL the sad fact be told
BY every kind OF uncouth sound,
Annoying every one around
SO let the secret be confined
To your own handkerchief and mind"
Here is an essential principle OF po-
liteuess so welded TO sweet verse that 1
even a child cannot misunderstood or 4
forget it
s'In conpany yotsr teeth to pick,
Would make refined bfholdeTg sick"
The worldwide discussion on the |
proper use of the knife and fork is all |
up and settled by this sugges-
tive passage:
" II you should, in a moment rash,
Reverse their use. perhAI you'd cash
A mouth already far too wide,
And shock all who mighe see beside.
Bread. nuts and fruit, dear fir, or madam,
Eat in the mode Of Eve and Adam"
Verify, poetry Is good for something, !
after all but, like willfui child, one
must know low to manage it.