New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-05-20
The People as
Poets
Courtesy of The New Republic)

a BOUT century and haif ago the,
~ pioneers of the Romantic Movement
began to socialize the theme Of Eng
lsh verse. To-day the literary descendants of
those pioneers are busy socialz;ng the ability
to write verse In a hundred and fifty years
we have advanced from the position that poet
ry ought to be written for and about the peo-
pie to the position that poetry ought to be
written by the people
This new opportunity for the people to share
in the creation of literature is not without
parallel in other forms of art 1t appears un-
mistakably in the expression devices which
have Of late become so irresistible an allure
ment to the purchase Of monographs and
player-pianos. press this ingenious spring."
says the manufacturer to the hosts Of the visit
fully inartculste, "press this spring, and the
innermost hopes and dreams of you will mould
the music as it pours forth and inform it with
the beauty that lies rebelously buried in your
soul. Press this spring, and you shall share
in the magic of Beethoven and the subtle wiz
ardry Of Ysaye."
These manifestations of the new spirit in
other fields than literature have not alarmed
the critics only because they have not per-
verted those vaguely defined judges of art, the
cultured public. No one seriously thinks of
the owner of an automatic player as rival
either of Chopin as composer or of NJ. Pad
erewski as his interpreter. No one, however
ardent with democratic enthusiasms, quite
overlooks the limited ability Of clerks and
shopgrls enacting Hamlet. No one has any
illusion about community singers as compared
with trained and chosen chorus. By general
consent, community singers and player-piano
musicians are kept in their proper places
In the case of free verse there is a salient
difference. The cultured public and their
highly sensitive servants Cor prophets), the
editors Of magazines, have been shamefully
perverted. Socialized poetry he's received the
sanction of authority; and the critics are
frightened and indignant.
As defenders Of the sacred traditions these
critics are not without justification. They are
the advocates of the cause of infinite pains as
opposed to Incidence, of ability as opposed to
usefulness. And unlike the prosecutors of
earlier literary heresies, they are themselves
toleraby good poets.
Their outstanding error consists in applying
to free verse the canons of narrow and in
eyorable technical criticism instead of lavish
ing upon it the sympathy and insight Of
new school Of biogra phical-social criticisms
school of criticism which judges poetry frankly
not by its effect upon the readers but by it's
effect upon the writers.
II is as if some benevolent baseball magnate.
seeing the fiabby, bilious hordes that come to
his grounds, were to induce them, for the sake
of their health, to play baseball themselves,
and were to bride each individual player to
exert himself to the utmost by the promise of
full bleachers and cheering without end In
the event of such an unusual exhibition of
philanthropy on the part of the baseball mag
mates there would be an inevitable resentment
in the hearts Of baseball writers, when among
all the myriads of converted bankers and
stenographers and clerks and lawyers they
failed to discover a single Alexander or Cobb
or Speaker or Mathewson.
On the other hand, from the tribes Of the
physical cuturists and the Better Body Build
ers and the How to Keep Healthy doctors there
would come an eloquent defence of bad base
ball. They would point to legions of healthier
Office boys and ruddier bankers. They would
expatiate on increased chest expansion and un-
logged eyes and clear compilations. They would
applaud the passing Of sport as a spectacle,
and the coming Of sport as an upbuilder of the
peoples health. In this hypothetical baseball
controversy they would represent the school Of
what have called biographical-so criticism
as opposed to the school of technical criticism.
Long ago in Japan the tradition of socialized
poetry-of bad poetry written by the people
was established through I know not what be-
nevolent agency. And the whole nation is the
better for 1t. Poetry in JAPAN" says Lafca-
do Hearn, "is as universal as the air. 1t is
felt by everybody. 1t is read by everybody. 1t
is composed by almost everybody. -. You
might wander, as / have done, into settlements
so poor that you could not obtain there even a
cup Of real tea but do not believe that you
could discover settlement in which there is
nobody capable Of making q poem.
The old ethical teaching was something like
this: Are you very angry?-do not say any
thing unkind, but compose poem. Is your
best beloved dead?-do not yield to useless
grief, but calm your mind by making poem.
Are you troubled because you are about to die,
leaving so many things unfinished?-be brave
and write poem on DEATH"
Something Of the same power Of poetry over
mems lives the vogue of free verse is slowly
and haltingly establishing among us. II may
~. hot in faxx LII.