Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-06-23
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES f. TRACER ELL.

complete vacuum. as far as great poetry
goes. exists in the everyday life OF the
business world he Is forced to wonder
if the time put on the poets in the
school Is really worth while.
Might not that fleeting time, so ne
asks himself, be put to better use in
the study OF human nature. so that
boys and girls may enter the race for
| success all primed for the endeaVor?
Why waste so much time over Il
Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" when
there are so many hard facts to be
learned, shrewd propositions to be
mastered e'er Buddy becomes an &C
complished business man?
The big use of poetry, 1t would seem,
is simply that it helps tone down the
savage mind of man.
There is no danger OF mankind being
effcminized, but there always has been
large risk of 1t becoming completely
masculinized
Certain tribes at certain periods were
Just that.
They thought nothing of skinning
animals alive and turning them loose
to run their quivering flesh to death
amid hOWlS of human merrlment.
The history of mankind is replete
with fiendish deeds which leave wolves,
by comparison, kindly gentlemen going
on four legs to afternoon tea parties.
Humanity has sullied itself forever
with dastardly deeds that the waters
of all the world can never wash out.
And every human being alive today
bears in his mind and heart some
traces of those terrible, sub-beastly
things. 1t is because we need help
against our ancestors--or the worst of
them-that we need poetry. representa-
tive of the other cultural influences
which soften the crudity of man and
ameliorate his harsh manners.
Poetry is representative because. like
the church, it dares TO speak out calmly,
faithfully, of the best in human nature.
1t takes soft-sounding sentiments. which
are out of place in the street. and makes
them live for the duration Of a@page..
So short is the page, so little the
time consumed-is this the most that
humanity can give, even in 1928, to the
highest sentiments of the human heart
and mind? Yet the world is surely pro-
crossing in this respect. Sound bust
ness men, at their club luncfeons. are
no longer ashamed to listen to the good
work reported by the committee on car
ing for crippled children. ...
what nave crippled CTllOreIl 10 90
with poetry? Nothing, except that the
spirit which prompts their care is the
same spirit of goodness and human de-
cency which lives in the best poetry OF
the ages.
One finds these sentiments mirrored
better in poetry than in any other writ
ing. since. by tacit consent Of the peo-
pie. the poet has been given what is
commonly referred to as the poets
license.
This term means, among other things.
that he may write of feelings OF the
human heart which in cold prose might
bring a blush to the cheeks of all those
who wish to appear sophisticated!
This means that man. writing
poetry. may set down the essentially
good feminine thoughts of the race,
feminine because they are kindly with
out shame. good without appearing
nanlbv-pamby.
while one may admit that he can
do" little If anything with Il Wan
dered Lonely as Cloud" and similar
poems. he may still believe, at the same
time that he is better man for hav-
ing learned them as boy;