THE VALUE OF POETRY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19792, 12 November 1927, Page 5 (Supplement)

THE VALUE OF POETRY.

INSPIRATION TO ENGLAND.

If we left music, poetry and art from the New England, we should find that man could not live by bread alone, said Sir. Sydney Walton, in a speech reported in the Oxford Chronicle. His soul hungered for beauty, and he would not be content without it, however perfect his material equipment. Without beauty humanity could not live. "We must," ho said, " minister beauty to the people and to do that we must steep our souls in the poets. Our objective must be a more beautiful, a more prosperous England. The poet could enrich and enlarge our imagination. Do not be a slave to Shakespeare merely because he is famous." " Great poets," said Mr. Walton, "needed great audiences too. The poets would quicken our imagination, give us poise and balance in our daily work, bringing in the invisible and redressing the balance when the visible tangible responsibility of the day tended to depress. We would thereby keep alive the sense of wonder which was tlie very gate and portal of knowledge and understanding. They would keep us permanently aware of the great truths; they would witness to us that the English were a. singing people, that king and commoner were united in the commonwealth of song, and finally they would teach us the great lesson confirmed in history that nothing great was achieved even in practical affairs without a dream and a song."