WAR'S EFFECT ON POETRY.

Press, Volume LII, Issue 15773, 14 December 1916, Page 5

WAR'S EFFECT ON POETRY.

A SPEECH BY SIR lAN HAMILTON. I have made no speeches anywhere during the war, and I understood that this was a private gathering. I will do my best to say a few words on behalf of tho Poetry Society. The association between war and poetry has been a long one. The greatest outburst of poetry the world has ever seen camo from Greece after .the Persian Wars. Tho greatest epic the world has ever seen was written about the Dardanelles by Homer. The next greatest perhaps opened with the line: "Of ams I singf and of the man." There were two great poetic periods in our English history. These were also markedly warlike and were in tho reigns of Queen Elizabeth and Queen Anno. Formerly poetry was associated in the mind of the public- with tho actual soldier —for instance, Sir Philip Sidney, who died at Zutphcn. Xowad&ys in modern England wo are more inclined to specialise, and a soldier is rather suspectcd as a soldier if ho is a poet. Also, a poet is looked upon a littlo doubtfully in the role of warrior. But already this war has produced fighting poets. Also, it seems to haro discovered poetical talent in many young soldiers. . . Iu Japan still tho soldier is in some senses expected to be a poet. l>uring tho siege of Port Arthur at tho time of tho war between China and Japan the Marshal Oyama was commanding the Japanese forces at the siege. On the battlefield one day he camo across the corpso of a Chinaman guarded by las littlo dog, which would not allow anyone to approach. The marshal was much struck with this incident, and on re turn ins; to he«dquartere he desired the staff, after doing their work, each to compose a short descriptive poem on the subject. In the Russo-Japanese war a general, wishing to test the taste and refinement of his staff, asked each of them to write a short poem of four lines, giving their views as to whether the plum blossom or the cherry blossom was the more lovely. One officer thought he would r&ther not risk committing himself to an opinion on so grave a matter, and he said in his verse that they were both equally good. For this opinion he suffered in the esteem of his comrades. Our chairman has suggested that th.B State should subsidise the societ-v and help it along with money. I should like to sleep over that proposition. An artist in colour may need help, for he may not be able to affora models, paints, studio, etc. So may an actor need help. But your poet, needs only a bit of pencil and a scrap . of papeV. I fear that the effect of . money subvention might tend to create | bad Doets, and there is nothing so i beastly as a bad poet. I has been, a motive power

in this country for a good many years, and I do not know that the pictures at the Royal Academy prove that official support has been good for training. Finally, if you ask me how it is that war and poetry seem to run in double harness, I would say that there is Buch immense energy generated in war that after the war is concluded it runs on and finds its outlet in poetry.