Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1934-10-04
POETRY IN
MINNESOTA

The conversation was with Mildred
Boie who wrote about II I'm The In
terpreter. Minnesota University pub
lication.
She asked what about Walt Whit
man and Poe, and Emily Dickinson
and +. A. Robinson and-and SO on"
She maintained also that II Strauss
could write waltz about the Danube
and call 1t blue. when It's black and
dirty, that II should be possible to
write poem about the Mississippi
the Father OF Waters. It's longer and
much more beautiful.
Mildred Boie desires that we create
and build an American culture and
says that we are no longer a country
OF imitators too homesick for Europe
to create our own culture. But the
argument she had with the Young
Poet she writes, made me wonder
II one Of the reasons that people say
there Is no poetry in Minnesota is
not that they, like my Young Poet,
do not understand nature. 1t Is sur
prising how many people, even in
ADMINISTRATIVE playground of the
Northwest, the land of ten thousand
lakes, a country which is still, despite
its industries and industrial turmoils.
largely agricultural-know LITTLE
about their state. They do not even
know the meaning of the Indian and
French names of their towns and riv-
ers; nor what kinds of berries and
fri will xuho
may be found in the woods, and when
and where; nor what caused the ten
thousand lakes that make the state
famous; nor how to see and hear the
beauty of the prairies.
"And just as they are blind and
Indifferent to these obvious and uni
versal sources of poetry, so are they
blind to or unaware of the poetry
of the human life about them. Life
in the Alps, even in peasants hut,
or life in Paris, even in wretched
flat, must surely be romantic and ex-
nesOta. Yet life is fundamentally the
same in all our western world-peo-
pie are born, normally get some edu-
cation, marry, haye children, work
and die-and all of these things can
be done with as much grace and ease,
if ones finances permit, or as much
romantic hardship, if that is desired,
in Minneapolis as in Monte Carlo or
London.
"As a matter of cold fact, most
Americans make or are subject to
more changes in living quarters, work
and social environment than most
Europeans are; and just as the aver
age American has, even in the depres-
sion, higher standard of living than
the average European, so he has
greater opportunities for experience
ing the adventures of modern life.
$50 it is not American life itself
which is lacking in poetic qualities;
it is the attitude of the people living
that life. And even at this point any,
one with his eyes turned forward in
stead of downward will take hope
hope from our growing interest in
such things as the little theatre
movement, local orchestras, and COM
munity developments in art which are
everywhere evident. In Wisconsin, for
example, scores of communities are
writing and producing their own
dramas, using their own folk ma
terial; in Minnesota, hundreds OF
small town schools train Orchestras
and glee clubs which perform great
music; in Oklahoma, new and in
digenous art is springing up. These
are only few of the signs of grow
ing and deepening interest in things
artistic, in the beauty and signifi-
canoe of life about them, on the part
of American people. But they are i'm
portant signs, for they show that we
are no longer country of pioneers
too busy to care for such things, nor
a country of imitators too -hOmesick
for Europe to create our own culture;
we can create our own art and music
and literature.
"That this interest in the arts is
not more widespread is not the fault
of our country or our state, but OF
our people. When the beauties and
life of America have been sung in
literature for some two thousand
years, as have the life and seas and
mountains of Europe, perhaps the
written poetry of the land will mingle
with the physical poetry of the con-
tinent. And when such heritages,
such traditions of love of beauty have
been passed down from generation to
generation a score of times, perhaps
greater love of beauty and greater
ability to create as we'll as appreciate
it will slowly develop.
mo one could deny that there is
great deal that is ugly and unpoetic
i'm Minnesota. Anyone who looks at
the squat, ill-proportioned, hideously-
lowered churches in our small towns,
or the square, graceless houses on our
farms, must groan aloud at the stupid,
unnecessary ugliness of their archi-
lecture. In New England, with less
money, pioneers facing much greater
difficulties built churches and houses,
even small and simple ones, that had
dignity and grace as we'll as utility,
churches and houses that proved a
thing of beauty is joy forever But
that was because even the common
people in New England had tradi-
tion of good, if severe taste. Most
~<1I