Omaha daily bee., 1914-02-19
CRAFT TALKS ON SYMBOLISM
Says Classification of Poetical Sym
bols Fails Through Theology.
GREAT POEM IS UNwRITTEN
Glass That Much Work IL Narrow
in It's Interpretation of Nature
and IL Not Human.

Speaking on the subject of Symbolism
In Poetry" Superintendent e. u. Graft
of the public schools told the alumnae OF
the teachers training class yesterday
afternoon at the city hall that attempts
to scientifically classify symbols had
failed because the work assumed too
much the direction of theology.
When literature has book in which
the symbolism of things is scientifically
opened, it will be the poem of the world"
said Superintendent Graft.
In criticising these attempts to "scien-
ufically OPEN the symbolism Of things
Superintendent Graft said the "theolog-
ical bias" fatally narrowed the inter-
probation of nature and did not leave the
work universal and human"
He said:
MY attention was first directed to this
subject by sentence of Emerson, in his
essay on Swedenborg. He is discussing
Swedenborg's doctrine of representations
and correspondences. which is, briefly,
that the physical world is purely SYM
bolic of the spiritual world; that II we
express a natural truth in physical
terms and convert these terms into cor
responding spiritual terms, wo shall, by
this means, elicit u spiritual truth.
This symbolism. Emerson states is
implied in all poetry, in allegory, In fable,
in the use of emblems. and in the struc-
ture of language. The poets, inasfar as
they are poets. use 1t : but It is known to
them only as the magnet was known for
ages, as a toy.
And down to this hour literature has
no book in which the symbolism of
things is scientifically opened. Swenden-
borg's design of exhibiting such cor
responsiveness. IL adequately executed.
would be the poem of the world, was mar
rowed anddefeated by the exclusive theo-
logical direction which his inquiries took.
His perception of nature is not UNIVERSAL
and human, but is mystical and He
braic. His theological bias thus fatally
narrowed his Interpretation of nature,
and the dictionary of symbols is yet to
be written. But the interpreter whom
mankind must still expect will find no
predecessor who has approached so near
the true problem"
To show the part played by symbolism
i'm literature. Superintendent Graft read
from many poets, pointing out that this
NaSfhON VI SApldlulnB anu todCnlnk Wak
natural tendency. Continuing. he said OF
symbolism, literature, poetry, and all
mental life:
Even a superficial examination re.
veals an extensive use of symbolism
in all our thinking. The mind penetrated
with this thought. projects 1t outward on
whatever 1t beholds. The lover sees re.
minders of HIS mistress in every beauti.
full object; the saint an argument for
devotion In every natural process; and
the facility with which nature lends itself
to the thoughts of man; the aptness with
which river. a flower. a bird fire, q
day, or night, can express his fortunes
is as II the world were only a disguised
man. and, with change of form. rem
dered TO him all his experience
This necessity of thinking in comparl-
sons, OF learning the unknown through
the known, Of seeing the ideal in the real
as as pervasive of literature and poetry
as 1t is of our mental life"