Morning journal and courier., 1889-04-01

Men From the Ages of 22 to 32 Said to Be the Glass Which Keeps Poetl Aliye-Reading that Destroys ths Taste.
 lEdnund Gosse in Philadelphia Press.l In attempting to address few words ol sympathy and council to those who read po- etry, am aware that am appealing to an audience which is in many ways limited
 one. Out of those who are readers, that ia
 to say, out of the whole educated race be-
 tween infancy and extreme old age, tire resd-
 CTS of poetry are chiefly drawn, if may
 trust my own limited experience, from one
 sex and from one decade. It may be di fered
 Il have reason to believe that it is different
 in Americs-but certainly in London, at
 the present time, girls and women take re-
 markedly little interest in verse. The read
 era of poetry are males, and of thess very
 few are boys middle aged men. I should
 say that, speaking roughly, the class which
 keeps the poets alive is the class of young
 men between g and 32. Before this age
 pathos; after this age the responsibilities of
 life, the disappearance of illusions, the fa-
 tai chase of wealth have robbed them of the
 power or finding stimulant or even an ano-
 dyne in poetry.
 To know whether verse is poetry or not
 nay, even whether it ia verse or Eot-is easi- CT than might be supposed. Style, that
 great antiseptic, as Mr. Lowell calls it, has
 kept alive only what is at least fairly good in the past, and the reader who confines himself to the recognized writers up to the last generation will have more difficulty in finding bad poetry than good. Everyone, however, had just curiosity to read the verse of his own day, that in which his own peculiar hopes and fears and passions are crystallized. Here tradition cannot help us; but if we have familiarized ourselves with what is best in the past we shall un- consciously have obtained 8 standard of taste which will enable us, broadly enough for practical purposes, to judge whether modern verse is really poetry or not.
 It may aid the reader in perceiving why selection by quality Is needful if we examine what is the nature of the stimulus to obtain which we read this emotionally artificial lit erature which we call poetry. We read it, then, to obtain that pleasure which is given by the presence in combined harmony of certain artistic factors, mainly melody of verse, picturesqueness of phrase and appro- priate novelty of thought.
 The less these or similar qualities are uni- ted, the less genuine Is the harmony, and the less wholesome is the pleasure experienced. If the meter and assonance of the verse are above reproach, and if the ideas are never- theless vapid or not original, the pleasure is defective. If the ideas are new and good, j, but the meter halts,. the pleasure is, or ought to be, still less; and this is why read- CTS, young readers especially, should be strongly recommended to contne themselves as much as possible to what is really good. It is undoubtedly beneficial for the taste sometimes to read what is known to be first rate, with special attention to an analysis of the causes or pleasu.e. For instance, 8 sonnet of Shakespesreare, lyric of Shelly a fragment of Milton's blank verse is above discussion. We do not ask any one whether this is good poetry or not. If any one does not appreciate it, the fault, we are perfectly certain, lies in his own intellectual ralate But, of course, as wine taster or tea taster has to be very careful while he is learning his trade not to vitiate his palate by
 drinking trash, so we should beware of al lowing ourselves to be seduced, on fortuit-
 ous grounds, by bad verses.
 While we make sure of the quality of the
 poetry we read, we must not neglect 1e-
 sponsibility which lies more with us than
 with the poet. The power of verses to give
 us the highest pleasure will be incomplete
 indeed, it will be almost pon- n-existent-if
 we are not careful to obtain from it the eff
 feet which the poet intended. Sadly few
 are those educated persons who read verses
 aloud with dignity and skill.
 shall never forget one instance of typical
 disaster. In quiet little evening company
 a gentleman of cultivation was asked to read "Lycidas' aloud, Now the opening lines of this great requiem are, as is universally ao-
 knowledged, among the most exquisitely modulated and cunningly mellifuous of any that human pen haa written. To recellect them in the silence of the night is to call up a pleasure not dearly bought at the price of an hours wakefu1ness. They are as refined in their polished beauty as the breathing