It
is true that the literary diet recommended by an aesthetic critic
would choke a healthy business man; but it is equally true that
for all men whose emotions are still alive within them, and whose
intelligence permits the reading of verse, poetry is quite as
valuable as fresh air and exercise. We do not need fresh air and
exercise constantly. We can get along very comfortably without
them. But if they are not essential commodities, they are
important ones, and so is poetry--a truth of which modern readers
seem to be as ignorant as was primitive man of fire until he
burned his hand in a blazing bush.
I do not mean for an instant to propose that every one should read
poetry. The man whose imagination has never taken fire from
literature of any kind, whose brain is literal and dislikes any
embroidery upon the surface of plain fact, who is deaf to music,
unresponsive to ideas, and limited in his emotions--such a man in
my opinion is unfortunate, although he is often an excellent
citizen, lives happily, makes a good husband, and may save the
state. But he should not (no danger that he will) read poetry. And
for another class there is nothing in poetry.
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