Mexico weekly ledger., 1878-11-07
BOB INGERsoLL ON POETS.
he AIMS HIMSELF WITH BURNS AS A
WEAPON AGAINST THE cHucH.

platform at Chickering hall last even
ling, he struck his fayorite: attitude,
with the thumb Of one hand under
his waistcoat and the fore finger Of
the other assailing the audience, and
observed: 81 find, ladies and gen.
uemen, that eediffer as much about
poetry-as We do about religion"
There was q general smile of satisfac-
ton and a great deal of encouraging
applause. Then Mr.. IngersoI asked
it TO be understood that whatever he
said against the poets whom he might
arraign would be said entirely from
his own standpoint se,g
There is no poetry worthy of the
name of poetry he exclaimed with
'vigor, t'that is not born of the heart.
Give me the poetry that is natural 1
d, not want the word-paintings of the
mind. ! have read your classic
writer's, full of sublime thoughts, and
! have found them unnatural. l have
read Dante, was told he was a SUBJ
lime writer.Ff 1 went down into his
hell and crawled in among his snakes,
butt didn't enjoy it. Solemnity and
stupidity are twins, born of superst;-
ton. But" he added parenthetical-
y, 81 will, give Dante credit for one
thing-he was the first that ever had
the courage to paint a pope in hell,
and that was no small thing to do in
his day. And there was Petrarch.
He wrote delightful things to a girl
named Laura. And who do you sup
pose Laura was? Why, the, wife of
another, man. All pretence; all pre-
tence- Not a throb, not a thrill of
the honest fervor of the human heart.
There was Milton. Magnificent
writer! I read Paradise Lost 1
read it-ence.T 1 don't intend to read
itaagain. He may have been sublime,
but1he- was not a poet, because no
man, can be q poet who does not write
asshe feels, as he knows, and as he
haslexperiences. Sorrow is not sor.
row, griefis not grief when they are
not felt. Miltonput.epaulets on the
shoulders Of God, gave us a battle of
the angels and represented the devil
as an artillery officer. That's pretty
lively for the Imagination, But it
isn't poetry. Where is there in NIL
ton a line Of deep, of splendid love.
He gave us the wocings of Eve by
Adam. Why, AGam might have
been a member of the British parlia-
ment, 90. far as Milton shows. After
reading that courtship, read the
courtship in the Tempest and you
will see the difference"
Then Mr.. Ingersoll branched out
into ~rhapsodic Indignation over re-
fgious poetry in general. There was
too much terror and horror and
misery in the alleged poetry of relig-
ion to suit him. "Calaiuism," he
Sid, said, sis the world with poetry
left out and he left in" Then turn
ing to poetry as differing from relig-
ion, he Said:@ "a real poem is not
imagined, it is lived; it blossoms out
of the heart. Everybody talks about
Thomson's IS, asons. What did
Thompson know about the seasons?
He used to lie in bed until two O'Clock
in the day and then pirate about the
weather outside. The classic writers
were not poets, they ere literary
mechanics 80
And finally, as representing his
ideal Of poetry-that poetry which
broke away from the chain of CLASH
cism-the lecturer singled out Robert
Burns, the second poet of the
world 1ss'The first man who broke
down the wall of the classic models
was Shakespeare" he said A poem
dare not be q lengthy theme. A poem
must be full of broken lights, darling
inafrom unexpected places. Take
yoarlearned thinker, your heavy ora
tor HE ha nmets along the dusty
LE.HIA Lf.LaELf b. -. L. -
highway of his subject, firing himself
and his auditors. Contrast him with
the wanderer-poet who breaks away
fromsthes beaten path to pluck a flow
er here to watch q butterfly there, to
listen to the music of a babbling
brook. That's poetry-the poetry OF
dioFession that's the poetry of Burns.
Barns inhibited his poets nature from
his mother. There never was man
ofgenios who didn't have . wonder
ful mother + Ibis with great en-
phaasi To loud applause. 1t doesn't
make much difference who his father
was CLaugbtsr and enthusiasm
Burns did not bsheyeznchurcb
he lived withrsae a~ristocraey on one
side of him and the church on the
other, and he hated both. No great
poet ever believed in religion! Tex
element in the audience. NogIeat
poAt-ever a No man with a great
and splendid heart ever can? Burns
had . great and splendid heart. 1
hate Presbyterianism. / hate Calyan-
ism They teach the doctrine of a
cruslsGod I'LL turned that chair
insSsthunan being, could 1 have the
right toFtortue that human being, and
saYss4 bad the right to do so because
nade1it? No; rather should /, be-
ink Irresponsible for its creation, love
and protect i And that, is What
Burns belieyed when he turned from
ayeligiion that preached heaven mp