New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1896-09-23
THE HISTORY o z ETR Z.
Prof. Jappe Talks Of the Art Of E presaing
Ones Self In Poetry

L "A =
Thos. il. Jappe and will be conclude
in two weeks: ,4s
As far as we can look back into thu
history of mankind, we find thatther,
have always been TWO ways Of giving
vent to thoughts and feelings. The ont
principally serves practical purposes, or
to put it more accurately, has a purpose
outside Of itself, the utterance being The
means only for communicating with
others, for reaching something, for exer.
cising some influence upon them in mat.
tiers Of everyday life.
The other way Of ex pressing ourselves,
as opposed to the first, has its purpose
in itself, our utterances being the result
Of a momentary condition Of mind, hay-
Ing more or less effect upon others some
times, but serving primarily to satisfy
ourselves, to alleviate our own mind land
to gladden. our own heart. While the
first way of speaking will, or ought to
be, always under the complete control
of our reasoning power, as far as that
goes, the latter will be the outgrowth Of
our phantasy and imagination, reason
participating only IN so far as it lays down
certain laws, draws certain limits, and
prevents us from talking mere nonsense,
OF at least something silly and foolish.
Prose, the first kind of speech, is, as a
clever writer remarked, always like a
captive balloon; it can never really leave
the earth, no matter how grand and pa
thetlc in style, while Poetry, the other
kind Of speech, can soar into the Hottest
heights, where its high priest, the gent
us,feels at home and interprets to speech
less common humanity the greatest joys
and the greatest pains.
Now, while it seems unnecessary and
perhaps tiresome to say much to you a.
bout Prose, for you are getting plenty OF
it right along, it may perhaps not cause
you too much ennul to contemplate with
me for a while the history and develop
me2t Of Poetry.
We all know that children, especially
small children, speak not only if they
want to communicate thought to us,
but, since their thoughts are as yet linn
tied IN number, very often without any
such definite purpose, impelled by an in
ner desire, from mere JOY in using the
developing faculty of speech. And in
following such an impulse they some-
times invent the most peculiar circum-
stances, adorn their stories like fairy
tale, and so produce unconsclously the
most marvellous complications. In their
plays they give life to the inanimate,
bring into correlation the most diverse
objects, devise the most manifold states,
and put them together into one kaleidcs-
copic picture. It is similar with man
kind in its earlier stages, and the COM
mon desire tor such plays of phantasy is
the more vivid, the less it is restrained
by exterior conditions Of life. The po-
litical power therefore is more promi.
nent and agile during the infancy Of a
nation; and in the uneducated tits often
greater than in the more learned, even a.
mcng those classes whose mental activi-
ty is rather Insignificant. In this con
nection it may be appropriate to men.
ton what traveller tells about the Lap
landers. When they drive their rein
deers from pasture to pasture, they sing
about all the objects they see on theil
way. Seeing tree, they will sing CHOW
I have seen a tree,' and continue thi!
till something else, perhaps a bird, at
tracts their attention, and then thei
song, without changing the melody
if their monotonous singing can be 81
designated, has the words, "There {
bird came flying" and SO on.
However childish or chilulike this
singing and saying may seem to us, i
shows the irresistible desire to represen
ir words and tones what they have seer
and experienced, not for any exterio
purpose, but from mere delight in nsint
the faculty Of speech and song; it is tn
utterance Of the poetical impulse, how
ever weak and undeveloped, which i
born with us and can never dissappea
entirely as long as men walk the earth
One of the noblest poets of Austria, VIII,
died 20 years ago,expresses this admirab
" in one of his poems, entitled ssThe las
poet'', where says in the 18th stanza
"Singing and exulting will . the last 0
men in the distant future leave the oil
home Of the earth as the last of poets
As long as there are men, I repeat, vii
there be poets, just as the first man ha