The San Francisco call., 1895-07-28

IN life. Poetry, in the sense OF all spir-
itual aspiration, all uplifting tendency and
ideal desires on the part of man, is the
thing above all else worth living for.
Science teaches us that which is, but poetry
points us to that which should be. Ability
is not one OF the most essential functions
OF life. The greatest thing to have Is a
desire for the ideal, and that is what real
poetry gives US. 1t inspires us with q
wholesome discomfort that is good for us.
1t shows MS vista beyond. 1t is the con-
centrated essence of the desire for the ideal.
Stoddard-Among the great poets there
is one love the best of all. His life was
a poem and his poetry is full of life itself.
Good people understand it and are better
for it, and bad people misunderstood it and
are the worse for their failure to COM
prehend. His influence has been limited,
thus far, but believe it is bound to in
crease, and that it will tell for power in
the years to come. mean Walt Whitman.
Donatella-We shall never be able to live
without poetry. Its influence is distinctly
ennobling and purifying-m so, even,
than that of music, which is transitory.
Poetry we take into our hearts and lives
and it sings itself to US always.
Runnymede-Poetry is the supreme in
fuence in human life. 1t is a matter of
regret only that poets themselves enjoy
possibly as a permanency less of the abiding
fruits Of their own works than others. But
as a compensation the power which en-
ables human mind to create has in it a
Joy, passionate Joy, which in itself has a
tendency to disturb the mental equilib-
rum, but yields pleasure so exalted, so
intense, that to feel it once is worth a life
of suffering. The prose writer has no con-
ception at all of the creative faculty which
belongs to the poetic genius. The prose
writer deals generally with the seamy side
of life. The poet has the power to create a
world of his own and to introduce into that
world all the sympathies that he has
created. God is the central idea of all
forms that have life or can live. He
speaks to us in poetry. The base material
ist, like The Chiel, cannot read his mes
sage, but it is there for all who can read it.
All history shows US that poetry is the
handspring of the influence under which
great national movements are brought to
their completion, and, as the Second Babe
in-the-W foods very properly put it, the only
thing in life worth living for is the ideal.
The real amounts to nothing. There is
nothing in the real life that is not common
to the beasts of the field. 1t is the ideal
that gives happiness, and the ideal is
simply poetry. If our minds cannot be
lifted above the dull reality of the daily life
for myself | should pray mother earth to
open her arms and take me, bury me out
of sight, for aside from the ideal and the
poetical, which mean the same thing, there
is nothing in life.
The Chiel-Despite my heresies, I can
assent to that last. | would however,
differentiate between the ideal, the poetic
which are the loftiest influences in life, but
which still contend are not limited to the
set form of art which we call poetry, and
the poetic form of expression itself. That
l contend, is a lower form of art than
prose, and one which will not continue to
prove adequate to express the intellectual
| life of so highly specialized a creature as
the nineteenth century man. With races,
as with individuals, we are religious,
poetic, mystical in childhood, metaphysi-
cal in youth and scientific in maturity. We
are entering upon the scientific ape OF our
racial existence, and verse is not the ex-
preston of science.
Naturalization has had an immense
| influence upon the human race, and yet
the highest religious ideas are poems. In
fact, religion in the youth of the world de-
scended to the poets in the morning of
time The vision of God is the creative
man, the idea of heaven and the idea OF
| responsibility. All these came as revela-
tions to the primitive poets. Aristotle
tells US that poetry possesses higher
truth and higher seriousness than his
| tory. From peasant to king it moves and
appeals to every heart along the whole
gamut of life.
The influence of poetry is largely an un-
conscious one, but day by day and year by
year it leaves an impress on our thoughts.
| Like some airy and invisible architect, it
shapes character. Many of the opinions
of the world have been formed by the
poets. The editor strengthens his argu-
| ment from Shakespeare; the lawyer the
orator, all turn to them for confirmation.
| The poet in his highest aspect may be con-
| sidered seer. His face is to the future,
| and from his high place he forecasts the
moral grandeur of the race.
Heterodoxia-I like that remark of Aris-
| totle's, that poetry possesses a higher
| seriousness than history. have just come
| from an intellectual center in this State
where they hardly consider poetry as seri-
Gus, but look upon it more as a sort of
| literary bric-a-bra l met there noted
| English woman of letters who told me
| she finds that there is no hope for poetry
| in California, nor any hope that there will
| ever be any poets in the State.
| Kenneth Malcolm-Why, this is delight
| full. Your English woman of letters is
perspicacious beyond her kind. Did she
| give any reason for her opinion?
Heterodoxia-Oh, yes. it was that the
| landscape does not lend itself to poetry.
| 1t is too vast and expansive to furnish
material for poetry. She claimed that
poetry requires nesting places, glades and
cozy hooks, "such as we have in Eng
| land"
The Chiel-Ah, yes, and Byron's
Daily tea is ready,
Snug coterie, and literary lady
Runnymede-Whichv very apt quotation,
I VI IL i IL -