Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-12-25

| form of writing. Men probably rhymed
before they wrote in any other form.
The fact that they could make words
sing, skip, jump and even leap like the
waves of the sea seemed to them an
astounding thing. In all the early ma
tons of historic import the poets as
sumed places of importance, and be-
came traditions in their own right long
before any considerable body Of prose
was developed.
Since those days singers with words
have developed many a uuirk and fancy,
but singing Is still singing, poetry-mak-
ing Is still poetry-making. The mind OF
man goes back to it as naturally as his
hands do to fishing or hunting 1t is IN
the blood. and contrary to many, 1t Is
not feminine but intensely masculine.
One OF the finest things that little
poetry, read every now and then, does
for the average man, is keep his mental
blood stream, II one may call 1t that,
clean and pure. 1t filters this blood,
fills it with the vitamins A, B, c, and
helps keep the brain cool and the feet
warm.
To read poetry. if only now and then,
makes man feel better with him
self. Have you not ever become
ashamed of yourself, especially in re-
gard to a failure to read good books?
There are perhaps few persons who do
not so lament, at some time or other in
their lives. Practical living must take
precedence OF fancy living, often to the
detriment of the better things of life.
And then time itself steps in, and COM
pletes the deterioration, unless one Is
careful
These inevitable consequences are a
part of life and living. There are an
amazing number of people, both men
and women, of the best education, as
education goes, who permit themselves
to become weaned gradually from the
things which they once held to be eS-
sentials. Let us admit that many things
which youth regards as essentials are
not really so. We wouldn't give a
whoop any more whether we made" a
college fraternity or not. But we would
be sorry If we SO far lost our taste for
poetry that we were unable to appre-
ciate good verse when we read it.
So we force ourSef, occasionally, to
pick up TennySon, and refresh ourself
with that finest of lyrics, Crossing the
Bar" lugubrious but fine thing, in its
way. The greatest lyricists are at hand,
always ready to give their instant relief
from the severity Of prose. Prose is
common sense, verse is capricious, way
ward; that is why the latter has its in
tense appeal to certain natures.
amateur poets are the ones who mostly
should keep in touch with that element
in their nature. There are few young
men or women who wholly escape the
urge to write verse. Often they turn
out small poems of amazing worth. The
hopeless amateur is the oldster! But we
leave him to the mercy of the editors
We are concerned only with the man
who once liked to write verse but gave
it up because he realized that he could
not do it we'll enough to suit himself.
Himself! Herself! OF such is the
kingdom Of the individualist, and to
him or her poetry means a great deal.
Some of it should be read often, at least
every now and then, in order that the
mind and heart may be refreshed by the
eXaltation which this form of writing,
when supremely we'll done, alone fur
nishes. The best written prose can
exalt, too, but the exaltation of the best
poetry has flavor of its own. It is a
quality singing around, above and be-
tween the words, the harmonicS, as it
were, of words, words above words.
Listening to this melody, the reader
torgets time and place and might we'll
be one of Homer's listeners, or belong
to the band of those who, so many,
many years ago, heard the angels
singing.