The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1909-05-16

oonslder-sthe wfnsome faoe OF the child
Both a. poet and man Shelley WEI eesen-
TALLY q child Everything that was not
aohiidlike. IN himf-the searching MIND,
the Intellectual passion. tho struggle on
behalf Of ideas-Thompeon dbcaros Irotn
the formula a. "a Wild mask or nhs TO
tains it there at ell It 10 only 30 furnAn
another Instance Of his 'ohihiikences-
Of his schildlike unfvasonabisoees--vue
beautiful attraction luminous m . eauds
sweet unreasonAbleuess. go
The dissatisfaction With extsetnG Col.
ditjons Inevitable In rsform@ M
idsslsts Of al degrees 10 ssntiy roasn
into the Same category. Els Wy a.
conteut with lNe can only b sscribed 70
this same childlfks t~rstionality-' WnyI
Because In fact Shelley vas very ven On
In q worldly sense. his was . lot tnss
many q young post might envy. He ~
faithful friends, . faithful wife md IN
income smsll but asured-' 30 far does
Thompson 20 In dsnyinS any ssraous M
port to Shelley's spiritual LIE. WIN I'D
social and panthsisto a~spiratons' No
rsmarks: tho obloquy which he sui
fered ION account Of thsml be dsafbeiseety
and wantonly oourtsd'-as II he should
and might rs easily have kept clear on
them as q child OF matohea- Thus al
through does this example OF "supresne
criticiams turn substance into accident.
We wish to know what precisely Thomp-
son means by q Child He tells IN IN
a passage of which thaA 1tsnnunn ays
Every simple word II pregnant with
meaning Here II II: Know you d
Il il TO be Q ohildf 1t is to be somethins
very different from the man Of to-day. IL
is to have q spirit yet streaming q
waters of bapiAm.' This trait &C Ieast-
though we would not interrupt unlea
.every simple word were pregnant with
meanings-may hardly be discovered IN
Shelley II, as Thompson elsewhere tele
US, she was an atheist from boyhood'
Most OF the rest. however. 10 applicable.
1t 10 to believe In love. to believe In love-
liness, 3 believe in belief, 1t To TO be 20
little that the elves can reach to whisper
in your ear; it ID to turn pumpkins tnto
coaches and mice into horses. loWness
into holiness and nothing into every
thing; for each child has its fairy god
mother in ito own soul; it II to live In
a nutshell and to count yourself the king
Of infinite space; it 10 =.
TO zee . world In a grain OF sand
And Q heaven In q Wild dover:
Hold Innnity In the palm Of your hama
And eternity In an hour.
It 10 to know not as yet that you are under
sentsnce OF life. nor petition that 1t be
committed into DEATH Shelley was Ger
tainly no such shirker. Now, to hat
does this passage with it's familiar echoes
refer 90 q whole? To imagination and
sensibility. Those are the qualities which
Thompson means by his child and GER
tainly all artists must possess them. and
Shelley possessed them more than most
artists because he was a greater artist
thar most. The child snakes believe;
80 does Shelley. beyond doubt. 1t 10
interesting to note,' says Thompson. how
essentially that purely n typically
Shelleian poem The Cloud springs from
the faculty OF m~ake-believe. The same
thing ia conspicuous throughout his sing
ing; it Ia the ohild's faculty OF make-be-
lieve raised to the nth power 1t would
be possible perhaps to reverse the propo-
sition and say that the child is artist
like The drift Of the words would be
as true OF Aristophanes or Dumas pere as
OF Shelley.
Now, II it seems desirable to call album
dant imagination and 'sensibility 'ohild-
like"-which they are. though O pecu-
liar to children; Barrie succeeds through
the theory that all adults are children at
heart-we have no quarrel with Thomp-
sons formula 90 far az 1t goes. Our
quarrel only begins when he refuses TO
see anything else in Shelley but magma
ton and sensibility. He says some very
beautiful and true things about shelley's
imagination and s%ensibility, comparing
him with Wordsworth, with Crashaw, Col
Inns and Shakespeare under this head;
but into what a quandary he stumbles
when he tries to substitute these instru-
ments Of the soul for the soul ITSELF
For instance. he several times refers to
the passionate spontaneity' OF Shelley
as saving him @from the defect by which
contemporary poetry in general az COM
pared with The poetry Of the early
nineteenth century Is widowed. That
defect is the predominance Of art yer
inspiration, Of body over soul" By this
.predominanoe Of art he explains that he
means the habit of excessive care in word
selection. which o easily becomes the
habit of taking the most ornate word, the
word most removed from ordinary speech.
In consequence OF this poetic diotion has
become latterly a kaleidoscope. and ones
chief curiosity is as to the precise oombina-
tions into which the pieces will be shifted.
There is, in fact, a certain band Of words,
the Prstorisn cohorts of poetry, with
u whose prescriptive aid mont dares
aspire to the p~oetical purple 1t will be
remembered that in Shelley's day, how
ever, an exactly similar protest against
poetic diction Of that time was raised by
Wordsworth.
Thompson does not deny richness
to shelley's diction; it Is often ssingulariy
rich" he says; but even when his diction
is richest nevertheless the poetry 90
dominates the expression that We only
feel the latter as an atmosphere until
We are satiated with the former, then We