FAIRYLAND IN POETRY.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 193, 9 May 1908, Page 12

FAIRYLAND IN POETRY.

■: It has .often been, said—it ■: was;-' said in a woll-known passago by: the cider Disraeli— that in order •to appreciate; tho beauty of fairyland' we.-must ,make' ourselves as little. children listening .tbvthe ..wondrous vtales of a nursei But there seems to be a fallacy contained .in this explanation of "tho spell.'lt . cannot :;be. contrived.; ,;No - sedate, crafty,. . timid old man of the world can' make himself as a littld child merely that he may) enjoy : certain ahcient poetry m a_ melodious stan«a. : Nor, on ; the other hand, is it'obvious that' real children, especially, children of' thel-mod- • orn. sort, possess, that ductile naivete, that : breathless and delicious Credulity, which fairyJand domands. Wc _ believe, and 'we. ; speak not withbut observation, that children,'as : a rule, like) stories best which deal with such themes ,as dogs that run after ..ducks, and '• grown-up. peoj)lo that tumble but of motors.' ' They like their tales to.' be realistic,; rather . hard, entirely , withintheir 'experience/: Hans Christiari .^nd?rsen jvi in! his i cventyr—so. falsoly translated •'' fairy-tales,"—took advantage of this i fact and■ mr.de a world-wide, success •by inventing stories in which playthings and' articles 6f'.'furniture and animals corae to life and act on "tho conventional principles of society. That'is' what children like. T'hey havb been -so short a time among -us that the banalities of experience are still fresh;to them, and nothing so amusing as what is pure 1 matter-'of-fact. Wo may , be'.quite, suro '.that the " Faerio . Queeno,", which is tho. main .-classic of this sort of art in'the world's literature, was riot .written for children. The ordinary, infant would be unspeakably bewildered and bored by tho visit of Diiessa to tho Lady of Night, and by . tho exploits of Arthegal and-Talus. - It might take a faint pleasure in Una; being followed. by the .Lion, as Mary was by .the littlo Lamb; and the fight. between St. Georgo and. tho Dragon (where Spenser appears almost. at . his worst) might arrest wondering attention'.. ' But what .is incomparable:'in • Spenscr'is'exactly what would fail to; amuse a child. •. We may bp quite sure- that it was no audionce from tho nurcery which the poet sought to fascinate.: '.Yet. it -is true thatf his poetry appeals only to the child at, heart. ;-flVhat we/.havo-.'to ,do is to define • for our.'selv.es what we mean by a child at heart, and •wo shall; soon perceive that tho object of our -thoughts is "not, in tho literal sense, a : child ftt all. ■ -. V ■ .

■Perhaps youth rather than childhood is the image wo, require. .With t!:o; ath'snco out of iiifanoy : into adolescence, the-mystory of existence ;first becomes palpatio and visible to the: fingers and tho eyes of those who aro torn to enjoy it. Wo fall into an error, however,; if wo imagine - that. it is given to every one who pleases toiarrivo; at this blissful condition;,of ityonden The world is very ; old ; and; it jsi' trojibled.]-about ;ntanythings; it is full of. tiresome exigencies and solemn frivolities. 'The denizens .of it .are, as a rule, incapable :'of Seeiiig or conceiving won;ders. If the Archangel Michael appeared at noonday to; an ordinary member of the House of Commons, 1 , tho legislator would mistake •his,: celestial.'visitant;,:fori 'an omnibus conductorj'He ffbuld rejoice at having sufficient commori'Vsense'Vand knowledge of the world id makefsoiintolligent an error. But those who are'privileged to walk within the confines of fairyland'are not of this class. Thoy aro members of a littio clan who still share the adolescence of the world; for, as this .world is, : in the; main,' dusty, dry, old, and given to ' fussing iabout questions of finance, and yet has nooks where' tho air is Jull of dow and silence, so, 'among men there", are still always a few who bear no mark upon thoir. foreheads, and move undistinguished, in the crowd, in whom, nevertheless, the fairies still confide. ' : ■v'-v . ;■ It will bo a - surprise to ; many, and ; it may bo a painful surprise, to loarh that there are fathers of families, persons "engaged in the City," and holding reputable appointments, who faithfully believe in magical princosses and in fays that dance by moonlight. These persons form tlie audionco in whom Sponsor—as, in othor times and other'climes, such poets as Ariosto and Camoens —seek and find their devotees. It is a fact that there are people of a later ago who ar^'still what we cnll "children in heart,", whose hearts are bold, whose judgment is free, whoso inner eye is limpid and

brjeht. These mon and women are sensitive Btilli olthough'tho searching, crinding wave of the world has gone over them. Thoy live, in spite of all conventional experience, in a state of susponded credulity. Thoy aro ready for any amazement. Thoy nourish, persistently, a,desire to wander forth beyond 'the possibilities "of ''experience, to enjoy the impossible, antV to' the inaccessible. I'Lifo for them, in snite of tho geogranhers and tho disenchanting encyclopaedias, and that gonoral suffusion of knowledge (upon all of which wo congratulate ourselves) —life, in snito of all these, is still tho vast forest, iSapp'ed out, but by them and theirs 'imtraced.' • Persona" of • this l 'fortunate tcmporamcnt storo uivan endless-stock of good faith where-with.to.faco-tho .toller of wonderful tales. And of all thoso to whom: thoy listonj still, after three hundred years, Spenser' is the most irresistiblo onchanter. It has always boon admitted that-his poetry is the most " poetical." that ;cr.n- be met with; that-is ..to:say, that,.it Js,the least mingled with elemontg ..which are, nofc 'of. the vorv essonco of poetry. :. More-.than.all other writers, Spen-ser-takes us out cf our every-day atmosyhero into a state of..things which could not be foreseen by any cleverness of our own reflection. Ho .is easily supreme, in the cosmogony of his cnchautments. He confessed that ,his vorse ,was no " matter of just me:nop'," : and it. is .evident that he did not wish -it' to.-'bG.i-'He-'simiily resigned himself toi.tho, .exouisite .pleasure of beins lost in the mazes ,;of , a ,'mysterious' and fabulouß woodland.-• ; The poets, in successive aces, have delighted ia bearing „witness <to this' witchery of " The ; Faerio. (iuoene." Th'oro is 110 instance of this more pleasingly expressed, nor more appropriate to our argument,/ than ;tbat of Cowley, who says, in his delicious essay "Of Myself": "There was wont to lie in my mother's .parlour (I know, not by what accident, .for: sho hersolf never in .lier life read any book biit of devotion), -but there was wont..to..l'-o, Snenser!s Works. This I happened'to fall upori'(beforo I was twelve years old), , and was infinitely delighted 'with'- the stories of the knights and giants and monsters, and brave houses, which I found every-where-there—though my understanding had little toi.do with all this—an(l by degrees with the,itinkling, of the rhynio and dance of the numbers." Wo may doubt whether the child Cowley, had not more of a man's taste than the man Cowley , had of the heart of. a child; . but, eve'ntSy he. entered with exactly : tho : proper spirit into that miraculous country where "birds, voices, instruments,, winds, ~wateraJ : all agree." And it is in this.spirit that 'hundreds of the elect have road the marvellous poem in successive ages,' hnd will continuolto read. it. until time itself has -passed away.—Edmund Gosse in tho "Standard."... : '..