The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-02-01

natriotism and a broader creed; a larger
canacity for living and a brighter OUT
look for dying. Poetry is the language
of the imagination, that forerunner OF
every notable achievement in huihah
knowledge and human endeaVor. vi the
earth. earthly, only a step removed from
the slug and OK. is the man VINO WIZ
admit that there is nothing in this World
but can be touched or bartered or eaten
The great so-called captains of Industry
whom men too often defy, are only camp
followers, gathering up the treasures
Imagination has lavishly scattered as
she goes on to higher enterprises. 10
put it in homely figure, they are ike
fat porkers, with eyes on the gfouha'
following the corn-laden wagon, plcKlhs
up the scattered grains and assimllating
them into lard and bacon. 1t Is lnfnteiy
more profitable to write one helpful line
that shall become the heritage OF Ire
world than to amass untold treasures
only to be scrambled for and apportioned
to few ungrateful heirs. The one act
is a priceless addition to the wealth OF
mankind, and increases at geometrlcai
ratio for all time; the other is gather
ing together from the many and redistri-
buting to the few.
If a people would build for permaneuce
| they must build in song. Crceds, gov
Pernments, philosophers change-only the
! songs abide. Why? Because they are
| the voice of Truth and Beauty and these
are immortal. The finest sentiments and
! the deepest emotions that stir the soul
must find expression in poetry-nothng
| else is adequate to their utterance. WHAT
/ gave distinction to the Periclean, the
! Augustan, and the Elizabethan Ages? The
| poets of those times: the names OF the
sovereigns are no more than dates.
Sappho and Pindar are still the inspira-
ton for lyric poetry; Homer ard
Aeschylus for epic and tragic. Shakes
peare, Milton, and Tennyson will remain
unchanged while the English government
proceeds in it's evolution Sculpture and
painting are subject to the accidents OF
time: poetry is as indestructible as hui
man passion: for as long as the heart
shall be moved by hope and love and
suffering, it will seek to express itself
in fatally chosen words. and this i:
poetry.
Emerson says "The high poetry which
+ shall thrill and agitate mankind, restore
youth and health, dissipate the dreams
uuueI WHICH men I6cl anu SIdSS6I, AM
bring in the new thoughts, the sanity
and heroic aims of nations, is deeper
hid and longer postponed than was
America or Australia, or the finding o
steam or of the galyanic battery. We
must not conclude against poetry from
the defects Of the poets. They are, II
our experience, men of every degree o
skill,-some of them only once or twice
receivers of an inspiration, and presently
falling back on a low life. The drop o
ichor that tingles in their veins has no
yet refined their blood, and cannot lif
the whole man to the digestion and func
ton of ichor,-that is. to god-like ma
tTre. Time will be when ichor will b.
their blood, when what are now glmpset
and aspirations will be the routine o
the day. Yet even partial ascents t
poetry are forerunners, and announce thu
dawn. In the mire of the sensual life
their religion, their poets their admra
ton of heroes and benefactors, even thei
novel and newspaper, nay, their super
situations also, are hosts of Ideals;
cordage of ropes that hold them up GU
of the slough. Poetry is inestimable al
a lonely faith, a lonely protest in tn
uproar of atheism"
1 Then Int '~~~ -