THE POWER OF POETRY

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 115, 16 May 1936, Page 8

THE POWER OF POETRY

In the tension of the times a touch of humour will often provide a welcome relaxation, and for that reason few people will feel disposed to condemn those ingenious Australian citizens who, as taxpayers and ratepa]'ers, resort to rhyme in appeals to the authorities, when other and more normal methods' of approach have apparently failed. There was the gentleman in Melbourne who began it last February by an application, couched "in moving rhythm with a pathetic, jingle," to the Commissioner of Taxes for time to pay. The effort succeeded and, what was more, the Commissioner, not to be outdone, gave his consent in the same rhythm (should it be rhyme?) and jingle. Nothing succeeds like success, and now Sydney is emulating Melbourne, with an invitation in verse by a ratepayer to. city aldermen to have morning tea at his home and inspect a footpath. This time the' cable message gives us chapter and verse, particularly the verse. The! ratepayer's turn is neat enough, but I the alderman's reply is one of those effusions which even its composer j would prefer to remain imprinted. Verse has been put to many strange uses, but this, latest development is not one to be. encouraged. One turns with relief to such a record of the power of poetry as this from one of Milton's sonnets: .- . . Lift not thy spear against the Muses' bower: The great Emathian conqueror bid spara The house of Piridarus, when temple and tower. Went to the ground: and the repeated air Of sad Electra's poet had the power To save the Athenian'walls from 1 ruin bare. This refers to the destruction of Thebes in Ancient Greece by Alexander the Great, who spared the house of Pindar, and to the recitation of a passage of Euripides which is said to have, influenced the Spartans to save the walls of Athens. There is the story, too, of Athenian captives in Sicily to whom the verses of I Euripides also brought salvation. Such was the power of poetry, but it is a far cry from Alexander the Great j and Pindar and, Euripides and the j Spartans to the ratepayer and alderj men of Sydney and a footpath.