ABOUT POETS.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 675, 27 November 1909, Page 9

ABOUT POETS.

article'in the "Daily: News;". Mr. G. K. Chesterton deals . with 'that permanent problem .which' may bo condensed to the question,-"Whf.-'is a - ~H o urges-one;.:of--his;fiercestbeliefs— that tne peopte, the mob, r are tha true-rohiantics. The moo has subtle ideas, but' does not express thom, subtly. Then—"Poets are .those who sharo these popular sentiments, but con: «o express them, that they prove themselves, the and delicate . things that • they really «"•' P°ets draw • out tho' shy -refinement of tha, rabble. .. - w hero tho common 1 , man covers the queerest , by saying, 'Ruin little kid, Victor .Hugo ;will write 'L'art d'etre grandpero ; -where tho. . stockbroker will only sav abruptly, -Evenings closing, in -how,' Mr. Yeats will write 'Into the twilight'; where the navvy, can. only mutter so|nething abont pluck and being 'precious game,' Homer will show your.the hero in rags; in his. own hall defving tho princes at their banquet..'- The Poets carry the popular sentiments to a keener and inoro splendid pitch; but let it -always be rememborea that it is tho pppular sentiments that they ■ aro catrying,'. >No -.man, ever wrote any good:poetry to show that childhood' was shocking, or that twilight was gay; and farcical, or that; a man was .contemptible -because he had crowed his sinks' sword with three. Tho people who'maintain, this arc the Professors, or I'rigs. . . "The Poets - are thoso, who - rise, ahovo the' people' by understanding them. Of course, most "of the Poets wrote in prose,' Rabelais, for: instance, and Dickens. Tho , Prigs rise above the. people by refusing to understand thorn, by I saying that all their dim, strange preferences arc prejudices and superstitions.' The -Prigs wake.-the peoplo feel .stupid; - the Poets inakd the people feel wiser than they ionld have'imagined-that they were. There are many weird elements in this situation. The .'oddest;-of all perhaps is. the fato of the two.; factors., in practical politics. The Poets who embraco and admire the peoplo are often, pelted, with:stones and crucified; ' Tho Prigs who despiso the people are often .loaded with lands and crowned. . In tho House of Commons,, for instance, there are quito'a 'numfb'er of prigs, -;but comparatively few -poets. ; There are; no: Peoplo tlierc at all. j ,'/' By poets/ as I havo said,; I do .not mean people .who. Write poetry, or indeed, people : :who..write anything. 1. mean. such.peoplo as, having culture; and imagination, use them; to understand - andshare; the. feelings of ; their' fellows; . aS-.against those" who use them" to rise; to what they, call a higher plane. Crudely; tho : poet differs from' -tho mob'.by"his" sensibility; the professor'differs ;from ;^ the, mob by

his insensibility, /-"Ho has not sufficient fiucsso outt sensitiveness to sympathise with the mob. His only' notion is coarsely to : contradict it, J? ,9 ll v aC i ross in accordance with soino ego-, tistical plan of his own; to, toll himself that, whatever, the. ignorant say, theyaro probably wrong.' He forgets that ignorance often ha 3 the exquisite intuitions'of innocence."