San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1923-09-23

finished the stupendous Ring and the
Book" And in something like twenty
immortal lines he dedicates the whole
10 the memory of his Lyric love-" his
wonderful wife who was recently dead.
For anybody may give one q ring,
IL appears. 1t is only when the posy
Is in 1.-THE "poesy" that is craven
ON the inside of the gold circle. for
only one pair of eyes TO see-that 1t
gains its real significance
The dedication Of a book Is the
anosvr that gives il special value to
snecial heart. and which of us has
not her books, with their yelhwed
: handwriting on the first end-papeT'
!. or the inscribed photograph Tor WhiSu
we would not take sargent, or the
letter that is never read except
through that magnifying glass OF tne
heart, a film Of sad and tenuer tears
A Great Treasure.
And it is poetry that captures ana
holds for US supremely the too-pols-
8 nant emotions of life. 80,
What prose may say calmly, with
all the force Of Carlyle or the suavity
of Stevenson, poetry makes neart-
rending-we cannot quite bear II.
4 Poetry is one of those treasures Tor
whose defense We may find no logic
like everything else in life that Is
valuable, there is no excuse for 1t.
E No excuse for maternal love, no
: excuse for young lovers. no reason
why / should like blue silk with black
stripes and you grey silk with brown
no reason for keeping the black KIT
( ten except that all the children shrek
! for his preservation, no reason LOT
{ drowning the grey one except that no.
T, body cares.
: Yet the child who grows up igno-
7 rant of poetry and not loving 1T is
a defrauded child, and. like love itself,
one may only inherit poetry from
. those to whom it is dear. :.
! No use to despise it yourself, and
: vet force little Mary and Bob to
{ memorize 'Thanatopsis' and the Re
: cessional." But some day on a coun-
: try walk begin the lines of The Inch
, cape Rock" or the Ballad of East
I and West" and note how soon they
|. want them again:
go on. Mother. About Sir Ralph
! the Rover. about that guy that stole
L The colonels horse!
Mysteriously Consoling.
Z Children will listen enraptured to
I ssThe Lady of Shalott," Holmes THE
= Battle of Bunker HILL" Barbara
> Frietchie." Noyes' "Highwayman,"
2 dozens Of Kipling's glorious ballads
:. and sagas, about the jolly. jolly marin
= ers. and the ebb of Yokohama bay,
>, and Danny Deever and Gungha Din,
- and all the rest Of it, and the Lady
of Shalott and the lady picking null
!. berries and the unfortunate little
s. lady Of the mistletoe bough are all
:. persons they like to know.
- And for older people poetry is mys-
= teriously consoling and delightful. Any
I. woman who wants to write should
begin today to memorize reams of it
8 as she goes about making beds or
Smelling peas.
- l knew a certain mother long ago
- who was supremacy indifferent to 81
= zebra or logarythms, but who insisted
- that her sons and daughters learn q
great deal of poetry. The girls weed
ed. cooked. tramped, swept rooms to
= music, and what it meant TO them
years afterward when they could fiji
Irish ballads to the actual Irish hills
and roll along for miles in an open
: motor car in Italy piecing the Brown
Z ings' words together like a mosaic.
only these girls know!
= 'sDead-one Of them killed by the
sea in the east" they chanted. "And
y one Of them killed in the west by the
sea. Both-both Of my boys! When
you sit at the feast, and they call for
song for great Italy free-iet none
look at me-"
4 and oh, to be in England, now
! that Apri's there" And-but this
in Ireland: "How dear to me the
Y hour when daylight dies, and sun.
beams melt along the silent seal"
Babyhood knowledge.
/ 1t was a five-year-old child in this
l long-ago nursery who said over a
game Of croquet: "Fain would !
climb but that I fear to fall" and
the same small boy who astonished
his neighbors at ball game by quot.
ing, "Just a glimpse, the air is clearer
they are nearer - nearer - nearer
That this boy has made literature his
profession is surely partly due to his
old babyhood knowledge Of beautiful
I words and their values.
4 To the lovers of poetry there Is :
delight not comparable TO any Other
! in life in the discovery of exquisite
verses.
To find, in the pages Of FranciI
4 Thompson, that the poppy is "a littl,
1 yawn Of fire" and that twilight i,
the "violet-cassocked acolyte" VIII,
holds the setting sun aloft within tn,
glowing monstrance Of the west" /!
10 make all life sweet while the mem
DRY Of il lasts.
], Wordsworth's daffodils, Keats
! moons and murmuring waters, all tn
skylarks and primroses, the stars en-,
the hills of song ara our ooynr,o,