Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-03-13

one may have reason for believing that
ne VIII sell as well there as elsewhere.
~ Is true that 1t u q prose translation,
but that makes no difference with
Homer-even the best metrical trans.
lati0ns In English might as well be
prose, for all practical purposes, due
TO the intense dffnculty Of turning the
Greek into poetical English.
Nor Is the poetical taste declining in
other directions, despite the fact that
many do not care for verse at all and
give It up at the first opportunity A
book Of verse became best seller
two years ago ("John Browns Body"),
and two short stories by o young man
named March have been successful, al
though done in ragged but clever verse
form. There has been also q "crime
novel" done in verse, but we do not
know whether successful as far aS
sales are concerned.
The point Is, we believe, that poetry,
OF all mediums Of expression, Is for its
devotees, and for no others. Upon
those who love 1t Is produced, by its
reading, an indeScribable effect, dif11cult
to put into words. II one remembers
the definitions of poetry which he
read in his youth from the pens of
Matthew Arnold and the like essayists,
he will recall wildly that no two writ
ers gave q similar definition, and that
no one Of them did, In fact, give any
definition at all, in . real sense; for
poetry Is not to be Jumped of In a few
Words or described as one would an
airplane engine or the latest type OF
radio set.
Poetry is not something easily de-
fined. easily produced or easily read
While its essence must be beauty, there
Is plenty Of beautiful prose in the world
Of books, so that poetry has no monop-
oily on this quality. Nor can it mar
rate q happening as we'll as prose, al
though the first tales were poems. II
has two qualities, however, which are
peculiarly its own-excitement and ex-
altation. The first is a part Of the lat
ter. The excitement Of which we speak
is not physical stirring, in any sense
but simply the mental reaction which
comes with the reading of all good
work. Prose, whether novel, biography
or whatnot, possesses this quality to q
degree. In the non-poetic mind 1t may
reside fully. as much as in the poetic
But when the POLITICALLY inclined reader
gets true exaltation from q poem he
must possess degree Of mental excite
ment which no reader Of prose alone
knows. Perhaps the only person who
can be sure of this as fact Is he who
reacts equally we'll both to words In
the prose forms and the poetic forms
That is why only this type of reader
is willing to admit that the gigantic
word masses of such q writer aS Walt
Whitman are essentially poetry. even
though the bulk of readers insist on
withholding from Whitman's work the
sacred name of the muse.
The POLITICALLY inclined reader, who
is by nature fitted to read poems, knows
that some of the prose of Emile lola
especially In his descriptions of mass
movements of men. such as the march
of the strikers in "Germinal" Is essen
tally poetry in prose form-might in
deed. be broken into short lines. II one
cared to do so. The essays Of Maeter-
linck are easily so treated, and the
treatment forms an entertaining after
Moons amusement for the curious
minded reader.
The gist Of this Is that only a GER
tain percentage of readers ought to read
poems. In any form. and that Of this
number only lesser number will care
for such q poets poem as 1.-THE Tesla
ment of Beauty" Such will enjoy 1t
for itself not as a century beating
work, which it is not, but because ii
is a noble attempt to continue in the
world the poetic tradition Of great
verse, poetry which stimulates the minds
of POLITICALLY inclined men to exalta-
ton, containing g. large, or unusually
large. portion Of intellectual excitement
a ifs eIIPp sfor NJ worth