Evening star., 1926-04-30
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES r. TRACEWELL.

Rising to the defense Of conscience,
moral sense-'call 1t what you will
William Upton Talbot of this city
takes issue with Hervey Allen OF
New York. whose letter on Poe as a
non conforming artist was printed
| last week.
In a letter lust received, the Wash.
| 'nstonian pays his compliments to "a
comparatively small group of puerile
but dangerously insidious modern
| pessimists" as follows:
Il assum. that Mr.. Allen has art
| FOR arts sake in mind when he says
that Poe is almost the sole example
in our American n literature up to very
recent times of the purely literary
artist Yet even IL Poe did dream Of
art for arts sake, the modernist
school OF literary artists can find no
.lustlf1cation Tor offensive non-con-
rormity in his works, which. as you
point out In commenting on Mr.. AL
lens communication, contain scarcely
word or thought that cannot be
read aloud before little girl
ut is true that Poe was not didact tic
and strongly objected to mOralizing in
art. But he was too much Of nice
common-se fellow or at least too
logical to assume that his anti.
didactic attitude left him free to i'm.
moraliZe in art.
I'm The Bells he got as far away
IRON the didactic as he possibly could
and came as near TO vindicating art
for arts sake in verse as any poet
ever can. In it's construction there is
the simplicity of genius. Yet Long
fellows scholarly 'Relfry OF Bruses' is
surely fit to be read in contrast with
II. In his treatment of sadness and
gloom in soma of his verses Poe seems
to make special effort after an un.
human effect, but to my mind. the
best he ever did in that respect is
not AZ artistically effective as the
didactic Tennyson's simple Tears,
Idle Tears.
IF YOU should ask me, | would
say that art for arts sake has not h.
ing to recommend il but aliuring
sound. 1t is az fiat a slogan as ever
! served had purpose. Technique for
technique's sake. although not quite
as euphonious. would do as well.
''To the expression art for bes uty' 3
| sake there can he no objection. That
was really what Poe was after. But
his conception OF beauty in its rela-
| ton to art was too limited. Perha ps
it might be better to say that IL was
! too abstract.
Conscience. moral sense-can 1t
; what you willis the chief charac-
teristic which differentiates civilized
man from other animals. The great
authentic works of art are those the
| beauty of which more or less indi-
| rectly reflects the growth OF that
| moral sense in the human animal.
| The art which runs counter to the
! moral sense is. let us say. more or
/ less directly unhuman. it's bea uty is
: more or less sinister.
''TeLnyson in In Memoriam speaks
| Of:
! Fantastic beauty such a. turks
In some Wild poet when he works
without conscience or an ann.
That is the kind Of beauty which
! at times beset Poe md in which his
! artistic strivings were too likely TO
be wrecked. Fortunately there was
! sufficient common sense. sufficient
nationality In his mental makeup to
produce limited but mag nificent out
! put by virtue OF which he still stands
! az the most original literary genius
America has produced.
Regarding Poe's personality. there
always will be differences OF opinion