The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-01-17
LECTURE ON POETRY
 BY ALBERT LATADY
Interesting Feature of Knights of Columbus Entertainment
LARGE AUDIENCE DELIGHTED
Third Anniversary of the Founding of Council 635 Celebrated by Birming- Knights of Columbus-Verses in
 Memory of Father o'Reily.

The feature Of the entertainment given last night in the Knights of Columbus hall at Fourth avenue and Twentieth street by Council No. 6S5, Knights of l Columbus, was an address on poetry by Albert Latady.
 The entertainment was given to cele- brate the third anniversary of the found- ing of the local council A large number of members attended and many ladies were also present.
 ] Instrumental and vocal music lent varied tone to he programme. At the close of the literary and musical features the younger members of the joyous com pany gave themselves up to dancing. Among those who attended the enter 1 tainment were the Rev Father Kitrick and the Rev. Father Goevert of St. Pauls, the Rev. Father Canepa of Our Lady of Sorrows, and the Rev. Father Doyle of St. Anthony at Ensley.
 The absence of Grand Knight Frank P. O'Brien, enforced as it was by illness, was deeply regretted.
 After Sterling A. Wood had spoken word of reorganization upon the progress made by Council No. 695 in the last three years. the company listened with delight tp a violin solo by Oliver Chalifoux and 1 to a vocal solo by Charles Herbert.
 After these musical numbers MT. Latady was introduced as the principal speaker of the evening. He was cordially greeted by an audience perhaps three hundred persons His subject was "A Lecture on Poetry"
 MT. Latady pointed out that poetry or at least the poetic sense, was something quite distinct from mere versification. i Poetry, he said, is the thought, the im- pulse, the emotion, the aspiration, the fine imagining. Versihcation Is merely the vehicle of language by which the thought is expressed. In a word, poetry is an art, the poet an artist. As an art ist, continued MT. Latady, the poet em- ploys various means of expression. In 1 literature, words are his material; the pen or pencil is the tool with which he works. In sculpture, his material IS stone or bronze or marble; his tool IS 1 the chisel In painting, the poets ma ] terials are colors; his tool Is the brush. l In each of these fields of art, the poet has his peculiar limitations.
 It was of the literary poet, however, and of literary poetry that MT. Latady more especially spoke. The popular con ception that poetry consisted in stanzas and verses was an erroneous one. This popular judgment had mistaken versifica- 1 tion for poetry. Versification was merely a mechanical device. Poetry was etherial; or at least something that was inspired by deep or sincere feeling, or by fine imagining.
 With these predatory words, MT. Lat adv. upon the request of t.-e council, l took occasion to read verses of his own composition-grave and gay alike. Ills first selection, "A Street Urchin," illus trated the speakers keen discernment and fine sense of proportion. It illus trated also that MT. Latady has the un- failing poetic faculty of seeing books in the running brooks and sermons in ] stone, if not good in everything
 It was remarked that in the technique l of MT. Latady's verses a somewhat un- happy tendency to use the end-stop line. and successive lines that beign with the same word; yet it was also remarked that in spite of this characteristic the emphatic accuracy of his rhyming and the atmosphere of his verse reveal the sure touch of one who has passed the period of mastery and has reached that point in his art where he may be said to have arrived"
 All MT. Latadys verses seem to indi- cate that he has studied, not without ad- vantage, the great masters, and that his style has sensbly, though perhaps un- consciously, absorbed some characteristics of Horace and Lucullus, and more espe- cially those of Gray and Goldsmith and 1 Coeridge.
 It was we'll that MT. Latady read to the Knights of Columbus his verses written in memory of one who, while in the flesh, was admired and beloved by every one who knew him-the late Rev. Father OReilly. The entire poem has already been printed in The Age-Herald. This opening stanza is reproduced:
 Farewell good Father; simplest of Thy school;
 Whom Heaven taught to live by Heav- ems rule;
 | Whose words and deeds bespoke the 1 generous mind,
 | Believing in the good in humankind. How often have I marked him when he'd meet
 Some passing Friend upon the public | street.
 | Cordial and kind, without a feint at 1 grace
 | "Benignant smiles encircling his face; l Careless if Jew or Gentle it might be- 1 "A fellow-man was all that he could see; l And if, perchance, the friend was of his 1 fold,
 | 'No different greeting did I e'er behold; "The man before him had some saving l grace
 (Which Heaven had taught the kindly
 priest to trace.
 Indifferent he, his faults or creed to scan,
 ''The Reverend Father viewed him as a man."
 | The reading of these verses evoked wrapt attention and impressive applause. l After more vocal and instrumental mu- sic the audience rose. moved back the chairs and gave up the following hour 1 O. more to what one of the speakers referred to as ''the poetry of motion" l The dancing was highly enjoyed by all the knights and all their ladies.