The weekly times-record. (Valley City, N.D.) 1912-1922, 1921-02-24
always clamorinG for something new.
Yet even here wa find songs that
would reach the heart of his people.

Yet even here wa lind songs that
would reach the heart of his people.
But the "seeming-needs Of my
fool driven land" as he once expressed
it, made a greater appeal than even
the lure of the mystic. He returned
from Paris, and also from his aloof
exclusive attitude Of superiority, the
latter well expressed in the following
quotation: II no longer live an elab-
crate and naughty life, but seek to
lose myself among the prayers and
sorrows of the multitude" Like Mil
ton, he returned to fight for his coun-
try with his pen; but unlike Milton:
he kept out of political controversies,
His great contribution to. English lit
erature during this period was the es-
tablishment of the peoples theatre.
Even If one were considering Yeats
wholly as lyric poet, one could not
ignore his part in the creation of the
Irish drama, for he was the very cen
ter of that movement; he not only
founded the Irish theatre, but brought
to it the greatest dramatist - John
Millington Synge. Moreover, his first
plays he very justly calls dramatic
poems.
But the very success of the peoples
theater, now the Abbey Theater:
brought with it a new disappointment.
It has given. to the Irish AUDIENCE
'clean, uplifting plays, free from al
propaganda or cheap comedy" but for
Yeats, the mystical and subjective, IT
is collective with the objectivity Qf
the office and the workshop, OF tive
newspaper and the street, of mechan-
ism and politics." It has succeeded in
it's: aim-to portray the life of the
common people in the language of the
common people; to make articulate
all dumb classes each with it's own
of the world and its own
dignity" But for him as for Brown
ing, the joy is in the striving, and one
iS not surprised to find him turning
from the attained goal with the cry
sT want to create for myself an I'M
popular theatre and an audience like
a secret society, where admission is by
favor and never to many. Perhaps u
shall! newer create it, -. y and PEI
sides. I want so much-an audience OF
fifty, a room worthy OF it, half "a
dozen young men and women VINO can
dance, and speak verse, or play drum7
and flute, and either and all Cne
while, instead of profession but
offer them, an accomplishment"
And 500 the poet has returned to; ms
earlier field where he may realize more1
fully his ideal for "a mysterious art,
always reminding and half-remindlng
those who understand it OF dearly|
loved things, doing its work by sug-
gestion, not by direct statement, seek,
ing always to- make people feel ana
imagine, not to understand and see:
The poem of this this, Eater period that has
reused the, greatest discussion is The
Wild Swans. at Coole." One crltlc1
saws it is indeed a swan song, "elo-
uuent with a. confession OF final de-
feat the song. of man who has been
mastered by his dreams; lacking the
creative power tho still possessing the
annaratus for artistic expression"
But another thinks it should entltle
Yeats to asplare i'm the hall OF fame.
Yeats has made three trips to the
United States. While in Chicago last
summer he appeared at Mandel Hall
one evening and entertained his audi
ence with "reminiscences of his brother
noets in the British isles. Now man
of Sc, he still suggests the shy, hesl-
tant youth described by Mrs. Hinkson.
One has the feeling that he chants ms
poetry, there, is a peculiar singing
Quality to his reading. Even at the
end Of a poem, his voice seemed to sug5
gest going-on, as tho the vocal read
Ing had stopped in the middle OF a
thought while the inner reading con-
tinued. The group to which Yeats has
belonged was motto quote the poet
himself-Puritans: He says IN one
place, "He only can create the greatest
Imaginable beauty who has endured
the all Imaginable pangs; for only
when we have seen and forseen what
we dread shall we be rewarded by the
dazzling, unforeseen, wing-footed wan
derer." He was not exactly apologiz,,
ing for the life he and his friends had
led: but rather claiming that the poet
wrote his ideals and aspirations, and
only in the darkest hours OF despondi-
ency could these, as if by contrast
soar to their highest flights.
TEMPERATURES AT v. C. NJ.
(Last WeeR) ,