St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1916-10-25

into imparting, (1) appreciation, (2)
habits and skill, and CD training in
the use of the reasoning power The
second hardly comes within the range
of library work, the first more or less
indirectly shades into it, but the third
has a definite relation to it for which
the speaker gave clear and SPECIFIC
suggestions. The association felt
gratifled and encouraged to be assured
of the interest of this new educational
leader, who endorsed so emphaticaIIS
the emphasis placed on Vermont his.
tory and the cooperation of schools
and libraries.
Afternoon Session.
The afternoon meeting in charge of
the Free Library commission was pre-
sided over by Prof. Emerson of YER
mont university, president of the
board. Miss Wright, secretary of the
commission, spoke briefly in behalf OF
Library Week, December 4 to 8, as one
of the Boy Scout activities to which
our institution could lend helping
hand. Prof. Emerson discussed the
theme of the meeting, Poetry, and re.
ferred to the two schools represented
on the program, Modern Poets" ana
Alfred Tennyson." George Dana
Smith of the Fletcher Free Library
of Burlington gave an appreciative
study of three poets of distinctly mod
ern type, Robert Frost, Rupert Brooke
and Amy Lowell, interSpersing his
talk with illustrative readings from
their lore. DR.. Fairbanks, of the
Athenaeum, followed with a paper on
the life and works of the elder poet
portraying vividly and with fund or
biographical anecdote, the setting of
an earlier century and the charm OF
those more remote and spacious days
The meeting then adjourned until
evening.
Evening Session.
The browning event or the joint ain
nual meeting of the Vermont Library
association and the Public Library
commission occurred Thursday evening
when Miss Jessie B. Rittenhouse OF
New York addressed the audience on
I Democracy and Modern Poetry
Poetry and democracy are really ex>
pressions of the same thing. Modern
poetry expresses what the drama Oh
two years ago was doing and the fc
ton of years preceding that Poetry
itself is always rapidly changing,
starts in revolt becoming conse w.
tive, then effete, as exemplified IN tic
last century by Wordsworth, Keats,
Browning, Swinburne and Wilde. An
American poetic revolt began in Wlil
Whitman, who broke the old molds
and made new ones, first copied by
French admirers and then returned to
his native shores in the modern vers
libre. Maeterlinck, Verhaeren ana
Tagore are some foreign examples OF
his idea. Whitman is the universal
democrat, the embodiment of a social
consciousness, not conscience. Some
American followers of modern days
are Markham, Schauffler, Open
helm, Amy Lowell, the latter a leader,
/ though not the founder of the Imagist
| school. This Imagist school rejects
rhythm and thus disregards the fun
| damental law of poetry, which was
| founded on the dance. Robert Frost
and Edgar Lee Masters are both poets
of democracy, the former an interpre-
ter of life in it's neglected common
place phases. Such a bare outline
gives no idea of the loveliness and
charm that clothed it's arguments.
Several poems were read, with COM
| polling charm, in illustration of the
| type or point under discussion. Her
hearers will not soon forget the sym
pathetic rendering of ''The Shop
| Girl Home Burial" Requiem" and
at the request Of Prof. Emerson, a
poem of her own, called Debts =
| Miss Rittenhouse addressed an au.
| dience of 1900 librarians at the A
l.. A. convention in Asbury Park last
July, receiving an ovation from that
assembly. But, though it was a case
| of eft audience though few" she
| could have found nowhere a more ap,
preciative or devoted group of listen
ers, who all felt that it was an honor
and a privilege to hear her.