Kansas City journal. [volume] (Kansas City, Mo.) 1897-1928, 1897-11-28
THE LONG POEM.

TOI SCiIlc liult tlcIS d ucSh q oSASA
superstition, probably prompted by desire,
that the long poem had gone out, but the
fact that the first twenty-four pages OF the
December Harper's, which contain The
Wooing of MaIkatoon," by Lew Wallace,
are devoted TO verse is evidence that 1t
is still being written, if not read. OF course.
Professor William CleaverjWilkinson is still
peregrinating in epic fields when he is not
engaged in the pleasant pastime OF rewrit-
ing the great masterpieces of English
poetry, but that is causing no great alarm
outside the walls of the University OF Chi
cage and even there his associates and
students seem not to be taking the doctor
seriously. And Mr.. Riley's new rubaiyat is
in two sections and is being published
serially. but it is a good idea to get as
much dialect as possible into one poem SO
that it can be the more easily avoided.
Probably Edwin Arnold will tell the story
of his late marriage to the pretty Japanese
maiden in several thousand lines of verse
and surely it will not be the least inter-
esting of his array Of epics. Even Mr.. Kip
ling, with all his power of concentration
and knowledge of the nature of man. gets
very near the danger line in the length OF
some of his poems. But all these poets,
and all other poets. may devote all their
genius to long poems, now and forever, yet
lovers of poetry will shun their work.
Emotion comes and goes like the waves
and the winds, and that is the reason why
it is tedious to read long poems. We go up
the hill Of feeIing-and We come down
again. These waves. or %uprisings, often do
not depend SO much upon the quality Of
the stimuli as Upon the starting point. Poe
called attention to his fact, and every
man knows it and every student Of psy-
chology understands II. The wonder is that
so many poets seem to ignore it. Poe sug-
gested. for a test. the reading Of the first
book of Paradise Lost" Some parts of 1t
will seem sublime and some only common
place. Read 1t again the next day. not be-
ginning at the first of it, then some Of these
passages which seemed sublime at the first
reading will seem only commonplace, n
the commonplace will seem sublime. The
wave-line of the emotions has changed
the heart has swelled at different intervals.
No better or other argument against the
long poem is needed.
To be sure, there are hills and valleys of
emotion in the drama and in the novel, and
much Of their worth depends upon their
natural arrangement. The novel leads one
over land and water, but the poem is a sea
Of emotion; hence the reader may be con-
trolled in the story much more than in the
poem. The novelist can make his reader
rest at certain places. but when the poet
undertakes that. he drops into prose. Every
line Of verse that is not emotional is not
poetry. No person cares much for Homer
in translation; he is great only to those
who have been educated to discover the
beauties Of the original. Great poets have
translated his work and transferred much
Of his beauty to our own language. but
they have won for him few lovers. Does
not one reason for this lie in the fact that
the student takes the original in small por-
lions so that it becomes a series Of short
poems to him. whereas he who depends up
on a translation is very liable to undertake
too much? There is only n way to get
enjoyment out Of a long poem and that is
to stop reading as soon as the reaction Of
the emotions begins.