A Study of Poetry by Bliss Perry (top 10 books of all time txt) š
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Through love and thought, through power and dream.ā
I also suggest for classroom discussion the following brief passages from recent verse, printed without the authorsā names:
1. āThe milkman never argues; he works alone and no one speaks to him; the city is asleep when he is on his job; he puts a bottle on six hundred porches and calls it a dayās work; he climbs two hundred wooden stairways; two horses are company for him; he never argues.ā
2. āSometimes I have nervous momentsā
there is a girl who looks at me strangely
as much as to say,
You are a young man,
and I am a young woman,
and what are you going to do about it?
And I look at her as much as to say,
I am going to keep the teacherās desk
between us, my dear,
as long as I can.ā
3. āI hold her hands and press her to my breast.
āI try to fill my arms with her loveliness, to plunder her sweet smile with kisses, to drink her dark glances with my eyes.
āAh, but where is it? Who can strain the blue from the sky?
āI try to grasp the beauty; it eludes me, leaving only the body in my hands.
āBaffled and weary, I came back. How can the body touch the flower which only the spirit may touch?ā
4. āChild, I smelt the flowers,
The golden flowers ā¦ hiding in crowds like fairies at my feet,
And as I smelt them the endless smile of the infinite broke over me,
and I knew that they and you and I were one.
They and you and I, the cowherds and the cows, the jewels and the
potterās wheel, the mothers and the light in babyās eyes.
For the sempstress when she takes one stitch may make nine unnecessary;
And the smooth and shining stone that rolls and rolls like the great
river may gain no moss,
And it is extraordinary what a lot you can do with a platitude when you
dress it up in Blank Prose.
Child, I smelt the flowers.ā
Recent criticism has been rich in its discussions of the lyric. John Drinkwaterās little volume on The Lyric is suggestive. See also C. E. Whitmoreās article in the Pub. Mod. Lang. Ass., December, 1918. Rhysās Lyric Poetry, Schellingās English Lyric, Reedās English Lyrical Poetry cover the whole field of the historical English lyric. A few books on special periods are indicated in the āNotesā to chapter ix.
An appreciation of the lyric mood can be helped greatly by adequate oral reading in the classroom. For teachers who need suggestions as to oral interpretation, Professor Walter Barnesās edition of Palgraveās Golden Treasury (Row, Petersen & Co., Chicago) is to be commended.
The studentās ability to analyse a lyric poem should be tested by frequent written exercises. The method of criticism may be worked out by the individual teacher, but I have found it useful to ask students to test a poem by some or all of the following questions:
(a) What kind of experience, thought or emotion furnishes the basis for this lyric? What kind or degree of sensitiveness to the facts of nature? What sort of inner mood or passion? Is the āmotiveā of this lyric purely personal? If not, what other relationships or associations are involved?
(b) What sort of imaginative transformation of the material furnished by the senses? What kind of imagery? Is it true poetry or only verse?
(c) What degree of technical mastery of lyric structure? Subordination of material to unity of ātoneā? What devices of rhythm or sound to heighten the intended effect? Noticeable words or phrases? Does the authorās power of artistic expression keep pace with his feeling and imagination?
For a discussion of narrative verse in general, see Gummereās Poetics and Oldest English Epic, Hartās Epic and Ballad, Councilās Study of Poetry, and Matthew Arnoldās essay āOn Translating Homer.ā
For the further study of ballads, note G. L. Kittredgeās one volume edition of Childās English and Scottish Popular Ballads, Gummereās Popular Ballad, G. H. Stempelās Book of Ballads, J. A. Lomaxās Cowboy Songs and other Frontier Ballads, and Hartās summary of Childās views in Pub. Mod. Lang. Ass., vol. 21, 1906. The Oxford Book of English Verse, Nos. 367-389, gives excellent specimens.
All handbooks on Poetics discuss the Ode. Gosseās English Odes and William Sharpās Great Odes are good collections.
For the sonnet, note Corsonās chapter in his Primer of English Verse, and the Introduction to Miss Lockwoodās collection. There are other well-known collections by Leigh Hunt, Hall Caine and William Sharp. Special articles on the sonnet are noted in Pooleās Index.
The dramatic monologue is well discussed by Claude Howard, The Dramatic Monologue, and by S. S. Curry, The Dramatic Monologue in Tennyson and Browning.
The various periods of English lyric poetry are covered, as has been already noted, by the general treatises of Rhys, Reed and Schelling. Old English lyrics are well translated by Cook and Tinker, and by Pancoast and Spaeth. W. P. Kerās English Literature; Mediaeval is excellent, as is C. S. Baldwinās English Mediaeval Literature. John Erskineās Elizabethan Lyric is a valuable study. Schellingās introduction to his Selections from the Elizabethan Lyric should also be noted, as well as his similar book on the Seventeenth-Century Lyric. Bernbaumās English Poets of the Eighteenth Century is a careful selection, with a scholarly introduction. Studies of the English poetry of the Romantic period are very numerous: Oliver Eltonās Survey of English Literature, 1780-1830, is one of the best. Courthopeās History of English Poetry and Saintsburyās History of Criticism are full of material bearing upon the questions discussed in this chapter.
Professor Legouisās account of the change in atmosphere as one passes from Old English to Old French poetry is so delightful that I refrain from spoiling it by a translation:
āEn quittant Beowulf ou la Bataille de Maldon pour le Roland, on a lāimpression de sortir dāun lieu sombre pour entrer dans la lumiļæ½re. Cette impression vous vient de tous les cļæ½tļæ½s ļæ½ la fois, des lieux dļæ½crits, des sujets, de la maniļæ½re de raconter, de lāesprit qui anime, de lāintelligence qui ordonne, mais, dāune faļæ½on encore plus immļæ½diate et plus diffuse, de la diffļæ½rence des deux langues. On reconnaļæ½t sans doute gļæ½nļæ½ralement ļæ½ nos vieux ļæ½crivains ce mļæ½rite dāļæ½tre clairs, mais on est trop habituļæ½ ļæ½ ne voir dans ce don que ce qui dļæ½coule des tendances analytiques et des aptitudes logiques de leurs esprit. Aussi plusieurs critiques, quelques-uns franļæ½ais, ont-ils fait de cet attribut une maniļæ½re de prļæ½texte pour leur assigner en partage la prose et pour leur retirer la facultļæ½ poļæ½tique. Il nāen est pas ainsi. Cette clartļæ½ nāest pas purement abstraite. Elle est une vļæ½ritable lumiļæ½re qui rayonne mļæ½me des voyelles et dans laquelle les meilleurs vers des trouvļæ½resāles seuls qui comptentāsont baignļæ½s. Comment dire lāļæ½blouissement des yeux longtemps retenus dans la pļæ½nombre du Codex Exoniensis et devant qui passent soudain avec leurs brillantes syllables āHalte-Clerc,ā lāļæ½pļæ½e dāOlivier, āJoyeuseā celle de Charlemagne, āMonjoieā lāļæ½tendard des Francs? Avant toute description on est saisi comme par un brusque lever de soleil. Il est tels vers de nos vieilles romances dāoļæ½ la lumiļæ½re ruisselle sans mļæ½me quāon ait besoin de prendre garde ļæ½ leur sens:
āāBele Erembors a la fenestre au jor
Sor ses genolz tient paile de color,ā [Footnote: āFair Erembor at her window in daylight
Holds a coloured silk stuff on her knees.ā]
ou bien
āāBele Yolanz en chambre coie
Sor ses genolz pailes desploie
Coust un fil dāor, lāautre de soieā¦.ā [Footnote: āFair Yoland in her quiet bower
Unfolds silk stuffs on her knees
Sewing now a thread of gold, now one of silk.ā]
Cāest plus que de la lumiļæ½re qui sāļæ½chappe de ces mots, cāest de la couleur et de la plus riche.ā [Footnote: Emile Legouis, Dļæ½fense de la Poļæ½sie Franļæ½aise, p. 44.]
While this chapter does not attempt to comment upon the work of living American authors, except as illustrating certain general tendencies of the lyric, I think that teachers of poetry should avail themselves of the present interest in contemporary verse. Students of a carefully chosen volume of selections, like the Oxford Book, should be competent to pass some judgment upon strictly contemporary poetry, and I have found them keenly interested in criticizing the work that is appearing, month by month, in the magazines. The temperament and taste of the individual teacher must determine the relative amount of attention that can be given to our generation, as compared with the many generations of the past.
APPENDIX
Believing as I do that a study of the complete work of some modern poet should accompany, if possible, every course in the general theory of poetry, I venture to print here an outline of topical work upon the poetry of Tennyson. Tennysonās variety of poetic achievement is so great, and his technical resources are so remarkable, that he rewards the closest study, even on the part of those young Americans who cannot forget that he was a āVictorianā:
TOPICAL WORK UPON TENNYSON
I
THE METHOD OF CRITICISM
[The scheme here suggested for the study of poetry is based upon the methods followed in this book. The student is advised to select some one poem, and to analyse its content and form as carefully as possible, in accordance with the outline printed below. The thought and feeling of the poem should be thoroughly comprehended as a whole before the work of analysis is begun; and after the analysis is completed, the student should endeavor again to regard the poem synthetically, i. e., in its total appeal to the aesthetic judgment, rather than mechanically and part by part.]
FORM / CONTENT
A āIMPRESSIONā
Of Nature. What sort of observation of natural phenomena is revealed in this poem? Impressions of movement, form, color, sound, hours of the day or night, seasons of the year; knowledge of scientific facts, etc.?
Of Man. What evidence of the poetās direct knowledge of men? Of knowledge of man gained through acquaintance with Biblical, classical, foreign or English literature? Self-knowledge?
Of God. Perception of spiritual laws? Religious attitude? Is this poem consistent with his other poems?
B āTRANSFORMING IMAGINATIONā
Does the āraw materialā presented by āsense impressionsā undergo a real āchange in kindā as it passes through the mind of the poet?
Do you feel in this poem the presence of a creative personality?
What evidence of poetic instinct in the selection of characteristic traits? In power of representation through images? In idealization?
C āEXPRESSIONā
What is to be said of the range and character of the poetās vocabulary? Employment of figurative language? Selection of metre? Use of rhymes? Modification of rhythm and sound to suggest the idea conveyed? Imitative effects?
In general, is there harmony between form and content, or is there evidence of the artistās caring for one rather than the other?
II
TENNYSONāS LYRIC POETRY
[Write a criticism of the distinctively lyrical work of Tennyson, based upon an investigation at first hand of the topics suggested below. Do not deal with any poems in which the narrative or dramatic element seems to you the predominant one, as those forms of expression will be made the subject of subsequent papers.]
A. āIMPRESSIONā (i. e., experience, thought, emotion).
General Characteristics.
Does the freshness of the lyric mood seem in Tennysonās case dependent upon any philosophical position? Upon sensitiveness to successive experiences?
Is his lyric egoism a noble one? How far does he identify himself with his race? With humanity?
Is his lyric passion always
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