WISE READING

Southland Times, Issue 25312, 15 June 1935, Page 9

WISE READING

BEAUTY OF POETRY MR PEARCE’S ADDRESS (in) Poetry in all its beauty and power was dealt with by Mr T. D. Pearce in tjie next portion of his address to the girls attending the Educational Week. “William Shakespeare, admitted by all, foreigners and Englishmen alike, to be the greatest poet of the world, and therefore a practitioner in the as, said in the opening scene of the last act of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”: “The lunatic, the lover and the poet Are of imagination all compact. The poet’s eye, in a fine frenzy rolling, Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven; And, as imagination bodies forth The forms of things unknown, the poet’s pen, Turns them to shape and gives to airy nothing A local habitation and a name.” “Notice the points—imagination, a fine frenzy or divine afflatus, turns them to shape, a local habitation and a name.” In other words, the essentials of a poet are imaginative power, emotional power, artistic conception, in words and rhythm and concreteness of expression. “Milton said: ‘Poetry should be simple, sensuous and passionate.’ “Wordsworth said: “Poetry is the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge . . . the impassioned expression which is in the countenance of all science..” “Note “the finer spirit,’ ’’ said Mr Pearce, “that is, elevation of thought and artistry of expression. Note also the ‘impassioned’ expression—there must be emotional expression. . Criteria of Poetry.

“Then, 50 years ago, in the article on poetry in the Encyclopaedia Britannica, Theodore Watts-Dunton, himself a poet, a critic and a novelist of high power, defined-poetry thus:—‘Poetry is the concrete .and artistic expression of the human mind in emotional and rhythmical expression.’ Note the four criteria of poetry,—Concreteness of expression, artistry in expression, emotion in expression, rhythm or music in expression. “The presence of one or more of these will not make poetry; the absence of one or more of these will militate against a claim to poetry. Examine the work of some of our poets.—Take Tennyson, Browning, Kipling. Tennyson studied the art of poetry; he corrected and corrected again his own work. As a result he is a master artist in expression, like Vergii and Horace, the Roman poets. Browning’s poetry satisfies Matthew Arnold’s definition, — Poetry is a criticism of life. But that definition is too vague. Prose is a criticism of life. But prose differs from poetry in not studying definitely musicalness of expression. Wonderful as are the portrayals of human life and character in Browning, wonderful as is his philosophy of life and his optimistic teaching, it lacks the beauty of expression necessary to fine poetry. It is too unmusical, too harsh, often cacophonous in expression. , Poets’ Work. “Kipling is concrete enough, often too technically concrete for the ordinary reader; he is simple enough; he is artistic in expression; he has passion and power; he has rhythm. Yet he has shortcomings. His artistry is marred by vulgarity of expression at times. There is force in his expression, but it is marred by the use of low or vulgar language. Finally he has produced no long poems. He has some very • fine short pieces, lyrical and narrative, but nothing of any length. “And finally, to take Robert Bridges, John Masefield and Alfred Noyes. These are poets of merit. Bridges, Poet Laureate after Alfred Austin and predecessor of John Masefield, wrote sweet, short lyrics, eminently musical. He published only one long poem, and that just before his death, The Testament of Beauty, a very fine poem, indeed, satisfactory in every way, lifting Bridges into a higher niche in the temple of fame. John Masefield has written long and short poems—a great creator, full of imagination, of force, of beauty; in workmanship, less refined that the great poets. Alfred Noyes has written much, both long and short poems; of a sustained dignity of workmanship, of great imaginative power, but falling just short of the first flight of poets. “Memorize noble lines of poetry, look for their thought and for their music—to remain with you through life as criteria of good poetry and as solaces in the realm of thought. Biographies. “Biographies are always interesting. Some of you saw ‘The Barretts _of Wimpole Street’ recently. Everything in that representation was historically true —the harsh, selfish father, the sanctimonious hypocrite, the secret marriages, the severance of the daughters from the father, and his unrelenting mood, his refusal to forgive, Elizabeth’s serious illness. I verified them from my Dowden’s Life of Browning. Recently I read .‘This was my day’ by Viscountess Rhondda, an autobiography. I found it interesting, but not particularly well done. She was contemporary with the Pankhursts, and like them, went to prison to show the authorities that she was seriously desirous of a new era, the women’s franchise. I will not enumerate good biographies—there are hundreds of them, of all sorts of men. “Travel, in the same way, is particularly an attractive part of a library for New Zealanders. If you cannot tour the world, you can read of others’ tours, with pleasure and with profit “Modem poets you ought to read are John Masefield, Robert Bridges, Alfred Noyes, Thomas Hardy and Rudyard Kipling. y Test of a Good Book. “The test of a good book is its bearing to be re-read, and read again and again without weariness, without skipping, and with renewed pleasure. How many times have we read and re-read parts of the Bible! How many times have we read Lewis Carroll’s ‘Alice in Wonderland,’ or Bunyan’s ‘Pilgrim’s Progress,’ or Defoe’s ‘Robinson Crusoe,’ or R. D. Blackmore’s ‘Loma Dqpne,’ or ‘The Arabian Nights,’ or ‘Don Quixote,’ or Dumas’s ‘The Count of Monte Cristo,’ or Tackeray’s ‘Esmond,’ or Peter B. Kyne’s ‘Cappy Ricks.’ These are some of the immortal books that cannot die. “If I were to be banished to a lonely island and were given tire choice of three books, I should select: (1) Shakespeare, (2) Tennyson, (3) the Bible. Of these I will say a few words. When buying a Shakespeare, see that you get a full edition. I recommend for its completeness and authorized text, the Globe Edition, published by Macmillan. I bought my copy 50 years or riiore ago, and it cost, new, 3/6. I still have it “In buying a ‘Tennyson,’ see that you get the complete works, as published by Macmillan. As a companion volume, you can buy the memoir of him by his son, Hallam. I have found that a most interesting biography and a most interesting record of the poet’s beliefs, and his estimates of other poets, and of the changes in thought of the 19th century. / Companions in Solitude. “My reasons for choosing these three companions in solitude are: (1) AU

three are masterpieces, recognized masterpieces and therefore classics m literature. (2) All three contain a great variety of reading—all the forms o poetry, lyric, epic and dramatic—of the highest order. (3) I do not need to speak of the Bible; it is so wellknown. (4) Shakespeare is admitted by readers and students of all nations and of all climes, Russians, Norsemen, Germans, French, Italians, Hindus, Japanese, Chinese, to be the greatest creative genius in literature. Think of the gallery of his portraits, whether in tragedy or comedy or history. Think ot the magnificence of his imagery, of his command of language, of his power as a creator of plot interest. Whether he portays men or women, boys or girls, kings or court fools or jesters, sailors or soldiers, Jews or Gentiles, Greeks, Romans, Frenchmen or succeeds where others have failed.. The extent and range of his intellect is so great that inen have questioned the possibility of one man’s writing such varied work and have sought authorship of his plays in others, such as Bacon. Then whole libraries have been written about his works, such is the compelling interest of this Elizabethan. Tennyson’s Work. “Just as Shakespeare is representative of the Elizabethan age, that glorious flowering time in the history of English literature, so Tennyson is representative of the 19th century, the second period of bloom in English literature. Tennyson lived for 83 years in that century and was still a composer at his death in 1892. Just as Shakespeare felt the expansion of space, the increase of knowledge of man in hitherto unknown worlds, consequent upon those brave voyagers, into the Spanish Main, the seas of India and China, and the Pacific, and felt the broadening impulse of mind, and gave expression to ‘the spacious times of great Elizabeth, so with Tennyson." “He lived in the prime of Englands glory, the extension and colonization of her dominions, the ever-increasing knowledge in science, with the consequent application of scientific discoveries to the amelioration of the. lot of man, the growth of factories, the growth of wealth from England’s manufactures, her undisputed supremacy, at sea, her leading place in world politics, the great changes in religious and philosophic beliefs—the rise of Agnosticism and materialism, the apparent conflict between science and religion, the Darwinian theoiy, the theory of evolution, the vast increase in knowledge of the starry Heavens, the use of railways, telegraphs, telephones, the use of steamers —and so on in the whole vast changes of the 19th century that saw more change in man’s mode of life that all the centuries put together that had preceded it. “Now all these changes are in the pages of Tennyson, the representative poet of his age. And for a further reason I would take my Tennyson. He is an artist in expression. In his pages you find from his Juvenile Poems to ‘Crossing, the Bar,’ nothing of the imperfect artist. All is polished by constant revision. All is musical. A beautiful lyrist, with some fine songs long ago set to music, an entertaining narrator of short and long stories, e.g., his King Arthur series, a writer of dramas that were acted on the stage, and a writer of many fine poems dealing :with the philosophy of life from the great Tn Memoriam’ to ‘The Ancient Sage’—all reflecting the varied lights and kaleidoscopic changes in the thoughts of the 19th century. Tennyson never wearies, but always delights his readers;

“And finally, I should take these three, Shakespeare, the Bible and Tennyson, because I could read and reread and re-read their pages.” < (Conclusion.)