Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-01-25
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

| 4 thing OF beauty is joy forever:
! It's loneliness increases: Il viii never
Pas. into nothinsness but still will keep
4 howsr quiet for us. and a sleep
Full OF sweet dreams and health. and quiet
| breathing.
Perhaps no line in English poetry
Is more quoted than the first above:
somehow it has stuck in the fancy of
| the world. and is likely to crop up In
almost any conversation.
Often 1t Is used by those who have
no idea in the world who wrote 1t.
Ask the average person, who uses it
! 2libly enough. and he Is just as likely
! TO reply as not. "Oh, it's In the Bible
! SOMEWHERE
! John Keats. the poet did not sne.
cIalile in quotable sentences. His
| works are not treasure houses OF
smart maXins. such as one will find
| on almost every page Of Alexander
Pope.
Just what there is to certain writ
| inSs that make for quotations" is
hard to define, for often enough what
IL said is not different from what Is
said elsewhere. Perhaps the merit
| lies in certain felicity of thought
and expression absent in the other.
The plays of Maurice Maeterlinck.
| for instance. are vastly entertaining.
when read in the study: but after.
ward, If one tries to recall line, nc
hnds himself practically unable to
| do so.
The writer Of these lines has read,
although some years back, practi.
cally all of Maeterlinck's unusual dra
matte offerings. yet cannot remember
a single line from them except the
! following: The soul of kitchen
maid looked out from her green eyes"
Writing lines. then. that will be
turned into Quotations. by future
generations of readers is more luck
| than anything else. Some authors at.
| tain 1t. and others do not, vet the lat
ter cannot be said. in justice, to be
any the less writers.
To the latter class belonged Keats,
with some few exceptions. notably
the one instanced at the beginning Of
this article.
While he did not succeed in striking
off lines that would he much quoted
in 1926. some hundred years after his
short time on earth. he did manage
to write poetry that is practically per-
feet in form.
1t has always seemed to me that
Keats should be called the poet
poet" instead of Edmund Spenser
who has been so dubbed in literary his.
tory. 1t Is true that the author of The
Faery Queene' is relished most by
| those who have dabbled in verse them.
selves, but the very same thing may
j be said of Keats.
One has to have had some personal
experience in handling verse forms be.
| fore he can relish Keats from start to
| finish. Then he Is able TO really APP
(, preciate the exquisite structures which
| this man created.
His handling OF his thoughts. too,
was essentially poetic. Those who do
not care for poetry" as they declare.
will find themselves terribly at sea in
| attempting to read Keats. for the sim
| pie reason that they do not give the
! poet credit for being a poet.
J Does that seem a strange thing to
! say?
Well, il is merel" declaring. In 4
different way, that a poet Is not a
! brlcklayer, or plumber. or a tax
collector, or a newer of stone.
A poet is poet, and, as such. has
right to be bit roundabout in ar.
irving at his thoughts. He works
with words, in a peculiar way sane
! toned by the centuries. IL you, on the
other hand, have not studied the
! forms, the plans. working drawings
and blue prints Of this architecture of
words, how dare you, then, sit of and
criticize?