The Worlds Best Poetry, Volume 10 | Page 2

and gives to airy nothings A local
habitation and a name";
and this again recalls in Holy Writ that clarifying description of the

imaginative power of "seeing the invisible" which is called "faith," as
being "the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not
seen."
These varied sayings concern the elements of poetry, and help to an
apprehension of its scope and power; yet they but partially satisfy the
desire to know what is meant by that familiar word,--which we
constantly use, and use understandingly, while yet the very makers of
poetry find difficulty in telling just what is signified by it.
Let us turn to the dictionary, and see how the matter looks to the
cold-minded definer. Webster gives Poetry as "the art of apprehending
and interpreting ideas by the faculty of the imagination; the art of
idealizing in thought and in expression;" and then, specifically,
"imaginative language or composition, whether expressed rhythmically
or in prose." This seems to come nearer the mark; although, by
admitting poetical prose, the popular idea of poetry is expanded to
include all writing that is infused with the imaginative quality. Thus is
found place for Walt Whitman, who defies all metre, and who yet lays
strong hold upon the reader--despite his whimsicalities--by the very
multiplicity and suggestiveness of his imaginings among real things.
Perhaps as satisfactory a presentation of the matter as can be found is in
a casual phrase of Stedman's in the Introduction to his "American
Anthology." This true poet and master-critic, in pursuit of another idea,
alludes to poetry as "being a rhythmical expression of emotion and
ideality." Here at last we have form, spirit, and theme combined in one
terse utterance. In poetry we look for the musical metre, the recurrent
refrain of rhythm; while that which inspires it arises from the universal
motives which Coleridge names as ministers to Love,--
"All thoughts, all passions, all delights, Whatever stirs this mortal
frame."
With this view, then, of the vast range of poetical thinking and
feeling--such as most arouse interest in all possible moods of the reader,
and recalling the fact that the aim of the poet is to set forth his strains in
musical measures that allure the attention and satisfy the sense of
perfect expression, it will be of interest to note a few passages
concerning this art of all arts from notable thinkers.
In his introduction to Ward's admirable selections from "The English
Poets," Matthew Arnold--critic and poet--to whom allusion has already

been made, says:
"The future of poetry is immense, because in poetry, where it is worthy
of its high destinies, our race, as time goes on, will find an ever surer
and surer stay....
"We are here invited to trace the stream of English poetry. But whether
we set ourselves, as here, to follow only one of the several streams that
make the mighty river of poetry, or whether we seek to know them all,
our governing thought should be the same. We should conceive of
poetry worthily, and more highly than it has been the custom to
conceive of it. We should conceive of it as capable of higher uses, and
called to higher destinies, than those which in general men have
assigned to it hitherto. More and more mankind will discover that we
have to turn to poetry to interpret life for us, to console us, to sustain
us....
"But if we conceive thus highly of poetry, we must also set our
standard for poetry high, since poetry, to be capable of fulfilling such
high destinies, must be poetry of a high order of excellence.
... The best poetry is what we want; the best poetry will be found to
have a power of forming, sustaining, and delighting us, as nothing else
can. A clearer, deeper sense of the best in poetry, and of the strength
and joy to be drawn from it, is the most precious benefit which we can
gather from a poetical collection such as the present."
Macaulay in his brilliant essay on Milton, which, published in the
Edinburgh Review in 1825, gave him instant recognition as "a new
literary power," set up an interesting theory. A few extracts will give
it:--
"Milton, it is said, inherited what his predecessors created; he lived in
an enlightened age; he received a finished education; and we must
therefore, if we would form a just estimate of his powers, make large
deductions for these advantages.
"We venture to say, on the contrary, paradoxical as the remark may
appear, that no poet has ever had to struggle with more unfavorable
circumstances than Milton....
"We think that, as civilization advances, poetry almost necessarily
declines. Therefore, though we admire those great works of
imagination which have appeared in dark ages, we do not admire them
the