Part 13 (1/2)

POETRY AND LIFE

=Poetry defined=--Poetry has been defined as ”a e from the heart of the artist to the heart of thethat the heart is the center and source of life, it follows that poetry is aa transfusion of life The poet ponders life long and deeply and then gives forth an interpretation in artistic fored with the very quintessence of life The poet absorbs life from a thousand sources--the sky, the forest, the mountain, the sunrise, the ocean, the storm, the child in the mother's arms, and the man at his work, and then transmits it that the recipient may have a new influx of life The poet's quest is life, his theain a larger access of life and to give life in greater abundance He gains theof life frorain of sand and the fertile valley; from the raindrop and the sea; fro of the thunder; fro's flash; and from Vesuvius and Sinai To know life he listens to the baby's prattle, the mother's lullaby, and the father's prayer; he looks upon faces that show joy and sorrow, hope and despair, defeat and triumph; and he feels the pulsations of the tides, the hurricane, and the human heart

=How the poet learns life=--He sits beside the bed of sickness and hears the feeble and broken words that tell of the past, the present, and the future; he visits the field of battle and sees the wreckage of the passions of s and revilings of a distorted soul; he visits pastoral scenes where peace and plenty unite in a song of praise; he rides the hty shi+p and knows the heartbeats of the ocean; he sits within the church and opens the doors of his soul to its holy influences; he enters the hovel whose squalor proclainorance and vice; he visits the hoality pour forth their bounteous gifts and love sways its gentle scepter; and he sits at the feet of his racious spirit

=Transfusion of life=--And then he writes; and as he writes his pen drips life He knows and feels, and, therefore, he expresses, and his words are the distillations of life His spiritual percipience has rendered his soul a veritable garden of emotions, and with his pen he transplants these in the written page And ain in their own souls that they, too, arden like unto his His _elan_ carries over into the lives of these loith the ardor of his ee, of service, and of solace For every flower plucked frorows in its stead rant than its fellow, and he is reinspired as he inspires others

And thus in this transfusion of life there is an undertow that carries back into his own life and makes his spirit more fertile

=Aspiration=--When he would teach men to aspire he writes ”Excelsior”

and so causes them to know that only he who aspires really lives They see the groundling, the boor, the drudge, and the clown content to dwell in the valley amid the loaves and fishes of ani toward the heights whence he lories that are, know the throb and thrill of new life, and experience the swing and sweep of spiritual impulses He makes them to know that the man who aspires recks not of cold, of storm, or of snow, if only he lory that crowns the e of earth and sky They feel that the aspirant is but yielding obedience to the behests of his better self to scale the heights where sublimity dwells

=Perseverance=--Or he writes the fourth ”aeneid” to make men feel that the palm of victory comes only to those who persevere to the end; that duty does not abdicate in favor of inclination; and that the high Gods will not hold guiltless the e even in the sunshi+ne of a Dido's s of pleasure must avail to lure him frorates upon the Italian shore His navigating skill h the perils of Scylla and Charybdis and the stout heart of manhood must bear hie reedy waves and boldly ride them down Nor reet his eager eyes

=Overweening a of overweening, vaulting ambition and he writes ”Paradise Lost”

and ”Recessional” He pictures Satan overthrown, like the Giants ould climb into the throne on Oly place for Satan overthrown, and in his own place he pictures the outcast and downcast Satan writhing and cursing because he was balked of his unholy ah estate, borne down by their sins of unsanctified aain, ”Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet, lest we forget, lest we forget” And the prayer echoes and reechoes in the soul of thein the prayer of the poet, ”Lest we forget, lest we forget”

=Native land=--Or, again, he writes Bannockburn and the spirit is fired with patriotic devotion to native land We hear the bagpipe and the dru in serried ranks and catch the glint of their arht We hear their lusty calls as they rush together to defend the hills and the hoain, the Wallace and the Bruce inciting valorouswith the shock of steel upon steel From hill to hill the pibroch leaps, and hearts and feet quicken at its sound Andtheir bairns to their bosoms as they cheer their loved ones away to the strife And while their eyes are weeping their hearts are saying:

”Wha will be a traitor knave?

Wha can fill a coward's grave?

Wha so base as be a slave?

Let him turn and flee!”

=Faith=--And after the sounds of battle are hushed he sings ”To Mary in Heaven” and causes theBush and to hear the command ”Put off thy shoes froround” And the heart of the limpse of the life of faith that the star foretells even as the Star of Bethleheh the eyes of the lover, he looks over into the other life and knows that his faith is not in vain And when faith sits enthroned, the music of the brook at his feet becohtly, the earth becoladness, and life is far more worth while The poet has caused the scales to fall froht of Heaven has streamed into his soul

=The teacher's influx of life=--And the teacher imbibes the spirit of the poet and beco up in her pathway because they are clai in her soul The insect chirps forth its music, and her own spirit joins in the chorus of the forest The brooklet laughs as it ripples its way toward the sea, and her spirit laughs in unison because the poet has poured his laughter into her soul

She stands unafraid in the presence of the stor for 's flash may rend the oak but, even so, she stands in mute admiration at this wondrous manifestation of life Her quickened spirit responds to the roll and reverberation of the thunder because she has grown to wohts of life

=The book of life=--The voices of the night enchant her and the stars take her into their counsels The swaying tree speaks her language because both speak the language of life She takes delight in the lexicon of the planets because it interprets to her the book of life, and in the revelations of this book she finds her chief joy For her there are no dull lades, or over the hills, because she is ever turning the pages of this book She s of life and accounts them all her friends and coe and with them holds intimate communion They smile upon her because she can reciprocate their smiles Life to her is a buoyant, a joyous experience each hour of the day because the poet has poured into her spirit its fuller, deeper =--And because the poet has touched her spirit with the wand of his power the waters of life gush forth in sparkling abundance

And children come to the fountain of her life and drink of its waters and are thereby refreshed and invigorated Then they sratitude to her in their exuberance of joyous life

QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES

1 What is poetry?

2 What is the purpose of rhy have the essentials of poetry and yet have no regular rhythm? What of the Psalms?

4 Why is poetry especially valuable to the teacher?