John Drinkwater
John Drinkwater
perfectly poem saying sequence short
Poe's saying that a long poem is a sequence of short ones is perfectly just.
along brains eyes girl goes knows quicker
And not a girl goes walking, Along the Cotswold lanes; But knows men's eyes in April, Are quicker than their brains
real expression essence
A lyric, it is true, is the expression of personal emotion, but then so is all poetry, and to suppose that there are several kinds of poetry, differing from each other in essence, is to be deceived by wholly artificial divisions which have no real being.
kind failing mood
So it is in poetry. All we ask is that the mood recorded shall impress us as having been of the kind that exhausts the imaginative capacity; if it fails to do this the failure will announce itself either in prose or in insignificant verse.
form should verses
It should here be added that poetry habitually takes the form of verse.
perfect poet selection
When the poet makes his perfect selection of a word, he is endowing the word with life.
expression perception musician
The musician - if he be a good one - finds his own perception prompted by the poet's perception, and he translates the expression of that perception from the terms of poetry into the terms of music.
expression perfect way
The poet's perfect expression is the token of a perfect experience; what he says in the best possible way he has felt in the best possible way, that is, completely.
mean government people
To take an analogy: if we say that a democratic government is the best kind of government, we mean that it most completely fulfills the highest function of a government - the realisation of the will of the people.
song art use
But in the finished art of the song the use of words has no connection with the use of words in poetry.
written-word written
The written word is everything.
communication way certain
Poetry is the communication through words of certain experiences that can be communicated in no other way.
imperfect circumstances ifs
If it is an imperfect word, no external circumstance can heighten its value as poetry.
strength fashion blow
Grant us the wil1 to fashion as we feel, Grant us the strength to labor as we know, Grant us the purpose, ribbed and edged with steel, To strike the blow.