His usual comment is that either one loves poetry or one does not,
and that is all there is to be said about it. If the general
reader neglects poetry, why then he belongs to the Lost Tribes and
signifies nothing for Israel.
I am sure that he is wrong. His assertion is based on the theory
that every man worthy of literary salvation must at all times love
and desire the best literature, which is poetry--and this is a
fallacy. It is as absurd as if he should ask most of us to dwell
in religious exaltation incessantly, or to live exclusively upon
mountain peaks, or to cultivate rapture during sixteen hours of
the twenty-four. The saints, the martyrs, the seers, the seekers,
and enthusiasts have profited nobly by such a regime, but not we
of common clay. To assume in advocating the reading of poetry that
one should substitute Pope for the daily paper, Francis Thompson
for the illustrated weekly, _The Ring and the Book_ for a
magazine, and read "The Golden Treasury" through instead of a
novel, needs only to be stated to be disproved. And yet this is
the implication of much literary criticism.
But the sin of the general reader who refuses all poetry is much
more deadly, for it is due not to enthusiasm, but to ignorance.
Pages:
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272