The Big Stone Gap post. [volume] (Big Stone Gap, Wise County, Va.) 1892-1928, 1893-03-09
Prose and Poetry.

sssiS man named Mailock who,
somewhere, wrote something about prose
and poetry. I confess would not have |
been more surprised had seen Julius
Cesar gathering violets or Grover Cleve-
sahd appointing y Democrat to Office than
] vas at reading .Josh's discourse. on
Foetry. had always looked upon him "a
modci Ut forensic dignity and elouucnce
a"d had considered the ou: put o! i,;s mind
as the quintessence Of legal accumcu, and
thought THAI ssch '.outward things (as
poetry dwcit NOT in his desires"
II seems to me that between Josh and
Mallock~ it, is side fall. as we say in
wrestling, aud that neither of them know
che meaning of the word emotion. If
Mallock knows it, and Josh has quoted
bin correctly, he has SO obscured his
knowledge bv words that one can't under
stand ii; or, as- old Uncle Eliza Horton
encc told me, ''yourverbosity ofexpresson
exceeds my capabi!ity TO understand"
But whatever Mallock knows, there is one
thing certain, j st don't know the mean
ing OF the word emotion. In his article
he asks ifthc lover when he first comes
face 10 face with the true object Of his
affections immediately let's forth Spon
tahcon- strcan "f poetry; or if a woman,
when murdsrous assault is nude on hcr.
screams poetry: or if ii man, when you
hit him clip in the jaw, knocks l'ack
POLITICALLY! No. they don't Int then
amt emotions" The first one may turn
into an emotion after while, and proba-
lilly will i, the gall is good locking.
Now, AN emotion is kinder working OF
the feelings Of a tender sort-not fear or
anger, or screaming or knocking. The
time when the lover has his emotion is
not when he comes face 10 face with the
object of his love for the first time, unless
he is as susceptible as Henry Mcdowell
or Pete Petit The time when he has the
emotion is when he comes face to face
will, her and lie thinks ii is for ihe asi
time. Then il ix hat he gets down tc
business and cnlis on the .'sun. the moon
and the seven stars the green grass
that's ;-growing around and around. F" the
'.Hewcrs that are blooming and the
water that is ripping 1t he collects
enough Of Tie above in good shape, and
backs it up with little feeling, he may
get the gal, bnt if he puts it in prose
and walks in and says by-- miss, ]
want to marry you, he is very liable to be
booted out by the old gent. Josh's smile
about the lovers is very poor one. !
will venfure to assert that no man ever
cOurted woman in prose and got accept
ed The nearest l ever knew fellow to
come 10 it was an oversecr's son down in
my country. He had beer going 20 see a
girl for about two years, and one day ]
asked his brother how he was getting
along with her. "Oh, lie saws, "he amt
. never said nothin' to her; he .jist sets thar
and hugs frs. one knee aud then t'other::'
but he married the girl. The hm9ging OF
those knees showed agitation and emo
ton, and the cir! knew what it was about.
In other words, it WAS the poetry Of mo-
tioh; that's the reason you can't court
them before breakfast and do any good at
II. II is the time Of day for prose, and no
sensible girl will listen TO you; but you
inst wait until the sun goes to rest and
the moon hegins to glitter in the tree
tops, and what was prose in the morning
will he poetry then.
Poetry Ms take it, is not necessarily
in .hyme; nor need it scan perfectly. 1t
10 the expression of The most intense pas
sions os our nature in the most beautiful
language or manner, and is always pleas
ing if expressed ut the proper time. Josh
saws it is t.'the ability to transposc and
select new words, so as to produce rhyme
and int;mates that it is inherited from
our ancestors, and that you can breed
poets as YOU can pointer dogs or race
hurees. II that were true and Tennyson
had married Mrs. Browning among their
issue would have been two or three
Byrons and nine or ten Shakespeare.
Great God; what pity it is thar they did
not marry. He further states that 1.-The
heart and the feeling of the man of to-day
is far more intense than that of his bar
bnric ancestor His love, hatred, pity,
grief, remorse, anguish JOY and misery
IRE far -greaier-inorc kecnly felt and
more durable; and rs long as this is so
his feelings are not so easily aroused as
formerly"
This. TO ME, is a curious kiud of reason
;ng and, in other words, means only this,
that the more combustible fabric is, the
teRs liable it is to take fire. or that the
anore feeling man has the less liable he
is to show it, and that the man of to-day
isa greater hypocrite than his barbaric
ancestor Josh uses as smile, in sup
port Of his argument, the difference in
emotions shown ut funeral i'll the coun
sry and one Ia the city among the elite. in
which the country people are likened to
our barbaric ancestors, and the elite of
the city represent the civilization Of the
18th century,. He is wrong in this. and
sorgets the thousand and one cases where
cur barbaric ancestors showed that they