West Virginia argus. [volume] (Kingwood, W. Va.) 1877-1946, 1878-03-02
The Practical Uses Of Poetry.
iRos.itcr johnson /

Everybody rejoices when law fellow
Is compelled TO work Ii gives supreme
satisfaction 20 see an habimal shirk eff
fcctually cornered. The most econ.
omical and conscientious will now and
then rejoice az the destruction or injury
of the most beautiful fabrics. if thev
have seemed TO give any factitious inn
Portance TO the body they covered. The
neat kids, the shiny boots, the fine broad
cloth, never give their wearer so keen a
pleasure rs they afford 10 his homespun
and hard-worked neighbor When any con
tingency, compelling him to put forth
his strength in some menial occupation.
splits the kid, muddies the boot, and
rumples the broadcloth.
j suppose il is on this principle that
all those good, sensible, practical people
who considers poetry the natural loafer
OF literature, seize every opportunity to
put IT TO some homely use, and seem TO
delight in seeing il harnessed down TO
plain, healthy moral, or made to express
geographical or meteorological fact.
The despiser of Tennyson, and ignorer
OF Whittier, invariably resorts 10
Thirty days hath September,
April, June and November"
when he wishes TO verify his dates. He
'NNNS AVi vi iibil MS MluuON, ana dis
Germs the signs of the sky with a NUT
tered
Evening red and morning gray
Takes the traveller on his way"
He even regulates his household econ
omy with such questionable symphony as
:" A stitch In time
Saves nine
His children are taught their first lessons
OF thrift in the couplets-
g See pin, and lot it lay,
And You'll have bad luck all day;
Sec pin, and pick II up,
And all day you'l have good luck"
As often as there il a funeral in his
family, he searches the hymn. book for n
rhyme TO be placed on the tombstone;
and, If the event calls out a few original
stanzas from some local muse, the copy
Is preserved forever in the family scrap
book
IL IS but few years since one of these
geniuses, who periodically burst upon
the public schools with a scheme of
learning, so sugared and honeyed that
the children cry for il, turned Peter
Parley's Geography into verse, and set
thousands OF classes to singing, i'm CON
cert, complete lists 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 the couplet by which he
taught the order of the colors Of the rain
bow:
:" On the memorys tablet these shall live
While we can spell the word R-o-Y-G-B-I-V"
But more troublesome TO remember
than dates, facts, and geographical
statistics, yet more mortifying to forget,
are the elaborate requirements of
etiquette. The completest victory of
those who lash folid facts TO buoyant
poetry, that the whole may float grace
fully in the memory, has been achieved
by genius who reduces the whole sci
ence to plain rules, and puts every rule
in rhyme. Landor's couplet-
That man is foolish who supposes
Those dogs are Ill that have hot noses" -
was one of the acciden ental touches which
so often precede a great discovery. The
rlper genius grasps the principle, and
gives IT complete application. Thus
we read:
90 is pity II you have q cold
But worse II tho sad fact IS told
BY every kind Of uncouth sound
Annoying every one around;
50 let the secret be confined
To your own handkerchief and mind
Here is an essential principle of
Politeness 80 welded to sweet verse
that even child cannot misunderstand
or forget it:
In company your teeth 10 pick,
Would make refined behodsfs sick"
The worldwide discussion on the
proper use of the knife and fork is all
summed up and settled by this suggest
i've passage:
" II you should. in q moment rash
Reverse their use, perhaps you'd cash
mouth already far too vide
And shock all who mighfsee beside
TREAD nuts and fruit, dear sir or madam
Eat In the mode Of Eve and Adam"
Verify, poetry is good for something,
after all! but, like willful child, one
must know how to manage IL.