University Missourian. [volume] (Columbia, Mo.) 1908-1916, 1911-05-21
REASON WHY SERIES.
Seeking To Show How 4 Study of The Various Courses
In The University of Missouri Equip The
Student For Future Usefulness
WHY STUDY ENGLISH LITERATURE H.. r. FAIRcHiLD.
Assistant Professor English University Missouri
Student For Future I

! Iconditions. One should, l believe
study poetry for the sake of the in
| tellectual discipline which it affords
: But he should not seek this discipline
at first, and he should mot turn Il
, poetry for the sake of this alone; ht
can get it to better advantage in The
sciences. Even more important is the
, emotional discipline. The Importance
J lOf the emotions, both in education and
!. in practical life, can scarcely be over
! emphasized. All the highest manifes
tations of human nature center, finally
in the emotions; nowhere do enfeeble
ment and failure in life make them.
selves more Immediately felt. Failure
to cultivate and refine the higher emo
tiOnS takes its vengeance in narrow
ness of intellect and of morals; to
stifie them is to insure the Orgie of
sense and grOssness. Now, | know of
no more effective means of disciplin-
ing the emotions than poetry. 1t calls
out the higher sentiments, articulates
them with truth, and carries them on
to full expression. The constant read
ing of second-rate fiction, where the
portrayal of life lacks truth, will so
eneryate and vitiate the emotions as
often to light life But to read the
great poets and to follow them as they
represent death where we should ask
for life. joy where we should expect
sorrow, thought where we might wish
for sentiment, is to rise to the emo
tional acceptance of things not shaped
by the hand of man. If for no other
reason than its disciplinary effect
upon the emotions one ought TO study
poetry.
If poetry is a moral force and an
intellectual and emotional discipline, ii
is no less a practical aid. Through
poetry We may gain knowledge OF
what life is and ought to be. Just
as physical science deals abstractly
with the laws of nature, so poetry
deals concretely with the laws of
personality. Nowhere are these laws
more truthfully and effectively re-
vealed Individual conceptions of them !
must always be narrow and eccen- |
tric, often wrong. Genius is the hu- |
man analogue to the creative power
in nature; and poetry is the antici-
pative grasps upon laws and concep-
tiOns of human nature that lie beyond |
the reach of ordinary men. Poetry is
a stOrehouse of wisdom. Through ii |
one may come to know life for what
it really is. With greater assurance
of success than he can well have
one may arm himself for
the battle of life.
But poetry renders even a higher
practical aid than affording a knowl-
edge of what life is and ought to be.
For, in the moment OF pleasure that
each reader has in reading a poem
or a play, through Imagination he
comes into possession of whatever
ideal is expressed or implied by the
poem. Herein, perhaps. lies the high
est social significance of poetry. Ii II
IS familiar fact that one of the
greatest source of waste in life is
mans failure TO turn his visions of
ruth into action. Often il is not
or want of knowledge that men fall
o the lower levels of life, to hatred
md jealousy, to suspicion and false
lood, but because they do not find a
sufficient stimulus to bring them to
higher action. Poetry supplies this
tlmuluS. 1t brings men to the verge II
II achieving much they are capable
t doing and becoming. To attain
through imagination what one de-
Tres to realize in feeling, thought, or
ction is to adopt the strongest means
ensuring its expression in reality.
When the primitive man sings his war
ong, he becomes, in imagination, the ,
ictorious warrior; and. having in i'm
gination become the victorious
'arrior, he has, as his return to his
ong indicates, adopted the best means u
nat he can find of ensuring success
ii action. Poetry, in this way, fills a Z
eed felt all along the social scale II
wins social sanction because it rem .
ers to society a service which can
e met so effectively in no other way. g
ldeed, society demands some compen-
alton for its own defeated efforts. =
demands that there shall be means .
relieving it, even if only in imagi-
alton, of the dull dead weight of
'utine, of suffering alleviated by no
lmediate hope. of sorrow lightened
: no apparent cause or justification.
nd. if society be not fortunate enough
find this compensation in poetry
I'd other forms of elevation, il will
eek it in drink and drugs and de-
aiding kinds of sense experience