' Now this
man might have seen all that the poet saw; he walked through the same
streets: yet the poet goes home and writes a poem; and he who failed
to feel the poetry of the things themselves detects it readily in the
poet's version. Then why, it is asked, does not this man, schooled by
the poet's example, look out for himself for the future, and so find
attractions in things of to-day? He does so to a trifling extent, but
the reason why he does so rarely will be found in the former
demonstration.
It was shown how bygone objects and incidents come down to us
invested in peculiar attractions: this the poet knows and feels, and
the probabilities are that he transferred the incidents of to-day,
with all their poetical and moral suggestions, to the romantic
long-ago, partly from a feeling of prudence, and partly that he
himself was under this spell of antiquity, How many a Troubadour, who
recited tales of king Arthur, had his incidents furnished him by the
events of his own time! And thus it is the many are attracted to the
poetry of things past, yet impervious to the poetry of things
present. But this retrograde movement in the poet, painter, or
sculptor (except in certain cases as will subsequently appear), if
not the result of necessity, is an error in judgment or a culpable
dishonesty.
Pages:
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249