The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1906-05-31


put on Sundays, but things they carry
round with them all the time. If you
ask wherein the soul of John Smith,
hayseed, can be of interest to anyone
but himself and his family, they will
point out to you that all souls are in
teresting, that every single event in
life from plow running over mouse,
to Macbeth numbering Duncan has
two meanings; one outer, insignificant
the other inner and very significant.
The common jargon of philosophers
differentiate phenomena, our percep-
tions of things from noumenon, the
actual things themselves, and poets
claim that they get down beneath
derlie them.
So far then from being mere dream
ers they claim that we are the dreamers
and that they are the realists. Yet
these men have all the appearances of
being such stuff as dreams are made of.
Take Shelley, for instance. Nowhere
can we touch solid bottom in his writ
ings; everything seems to be misty,
cloudy. But possibly this, too, is
conception of life; is everything SO
clear-cut, so sharply defined that we
can definitely say that we know it,
inside and out? Again, Spens er's
whole poem is dream and yet he also
lays claim to have more accurate idea
of things than we have.
But if they are such different race
of men from ourselves, how are we to
know them, and what is their use to
us? Is every man who discovers that
"heart" sounds like "dart," or that
words can be stuck together so
that the accent falls regularly, q
poet? Probably not, because if that
were so Pope would be the greatest
of them all, instead of being poet
in occasional flashes. The fact is, that
a poet is only poet inasmuch as he
appeals to the individual. The man
who is poet to Smith, appears as a
miserable versifer to Brown; that is, if
Brown considers his own mind and
does not follow the superior authority
of Smith. 1 always listen respectfully
to man who finds that Shakespeare
was no poet, as do to a man who
maintained that Wagner was no musi-
clan. However wrongheaded his
) judgment may seem, he is perfectly
right to stand upon it and for him
Shakespeare is not poet
AS for the use of poetry to US, this
again is a matter for the individual.
Some men will find it an actual, tangi-
BILE help to them in life, others a mere
recreation, while others have no use
for it. Many prefer it when it has
. moral neatly tagged onto 1t while
some choose the subtlest, most nonsen-
sical-seeming, verse Of Browning, and
kindred mystics. But at any rate the
: experiment Of dipping into a little
i poetry for change is one well worth
: trying. After all, there is a certain
Q sameness about the eternal novel
"Laura's Secret" is uncommonly like
ellis Mothers Repentance" that noble
: young fellow Harry Cotton seems to
Q generally pair off with the beautiful
2 Clara Langford despite all efforts of
}. the wicked Mark Gleason. Even his
S tory pals after a time-for what is
d history but more life-like novel where
e in men are not quite so much wax
J. figures as they are in downright fiction.
It That it is personal history which
a mainly interests the average reader is
u certain, for it is personal history that
we are taught as boys and the liking
}, generally grows on us. Every English.
9 man is familiar with George Washing
y tons inability to tell lie, 81
q demonstrated on certain historic oc
IS casion, and if an American knows any
II thing about Alfred the Great it is thai
8; he was not success in the culinar!
is line. If we are better acquainted will
"a the history of our own countries, it il
re mainly because some knowledge Of
i'd that description is absolutely neces
le sary to right understanding Of th'
re very newspapers.
y Preposterous some poets ideas maj
= seem to us, but there is food fol
- thought in all of them and maybt
70 something really valuable to the ordi
30 nary, every day working an-s0me
OF thing Of inspiration worth far NOR
ut than mere dollars. ANGLICUR