The evening times., 1898-05-30
Why Do We Read Poetry7

A. T. Quiller-Couch, in the June Pail
Mall Magazine, discusses the question
why do We read poetry" He points
out that the Information contained in
books of poetry is mostly inaccurate or
fanciful, sometimes both, and that when
Tennyson tells US that the birds in the
Hall garden were crying. Maud, Maud.
Maud" the fact was that they were do
ing no such thing. On the other hand,
that verse beginning, Thirty days hath
September" which is quite accurate in
its Information, is not poetry at all Yet,
he says, there must be some natural
need in our natures which is satisfied
by poetry, or We would not read it,
To answer this question fully would
result in psychological work of con-
siderable bulk. The instinct for max
ing and reading or hearing poetry is as
old as the human race, and is bound up
with all the finer instincts of human
nature. Like most instructive things. it
is very hard to explain. Some people
do not have this instinct, and they never
read poetry. They are usually fond of
hard facts. On the other hand, the man
or woman who delights in poetry is not
often fond of the sciences. What is
reason of all this?
One reason probably is that poetry.
more than any other form Of literature,
reaches out into all the various phases
Of human life. There are philosophers
who say that in their essence, sound,
light. odor and taste are all governed
by the same laws. So, when Emerson
says, THE ripples in rhyme the oar
forsake," he touches on the idea that
the form of the water, as well as its
sound, has in it something rhythmic;
but he expresses the idea SO delicately
that only a quick intuition. by some
process too swift to be easily explained.
catches the idea So, there are phil
osophers who claim that there is life
of some sort in what We are wont to
call inanimate objects-the mountain,
the tree. the cloud-but long before this
theory was evolved by science the poet
personffied everything in the universe
Poetry. in short, is governed by philo-
sophical laws, but those laws are un-
derstood by the poet. not through proc
esses of logic. but by intuition. In the |
same way rules of prosody have been
made, but nobody ever wrote poetry
merely through the knowledge of rules. !
The true poet knows when he violates |
one OF those rules. because his verse |
does not sound right, but he could not |
tell you why 1t does not sound right un- |
less he had gone through all the slower |!
processes OF logic. 1t is probably true |
that one reason for the satisfaction |
which poetry gives to nature impa- |
tient Of the details of science is that #
leads the way to great laws of exist |
ence. not through logic, but through the
exercise Of a rarer and more delicate
faculty. intuition.
Another reason for the enjoyment
which most people have In poetry Hes
in its rhythm. The ordinary man en- |
Joys poetry exactly as he enjoys
q rhythmical piece OF music; there
10 something in It which stirs his blood.
We spring from nations which, In obe-
iience to this rhythmical instinct, made
rhymes. and sang the rhymes when Ii
they went to war. or made love, or wor-
shiped their God. Thus rhythm il as
sociated through generations OF ances-