Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Tradition and Change: Studies in Contemporary Literature
Poetry is already in a twelfth impression, and many of the names that decorate it are among the most enthusiastically acclaimed of the younger generation. But, before we consider their performance in detail, a few re?ections upon the art which they practise may help us to appreciate the precise standard of poetry to which their workmanship and Spiritual outlook conform. Poetry, it will be generally conceded, even by the most enterprising claimant for plain speak ing in common speech, must work in one or other, or in all combined, of three different media - ideas, emotions, and moods. When poetry was defined as a criticism Of life, the framer Of the definition had in mind chie?y the poetry Of ideas; when it is described as 'emo tion remembered In tranquillity, t the description is directed chie?y to emotional poetry; and when we are told, as we often are nowadays, that the sincere reproduction of a moment's Spiritual experience is the proper concern Of the poetic art, this third and final definition applies alrnost exclusively to the poetry which seeks to reproduce the writer's passing mood without considering its permanent truth or value. The highest order of poetry will be found, under analysis, to com bine elements from each Of these three classes for the emotion, without which poetry is barren, contains in itself an indirect reference to the mood in which it is evoked, while the poet pro ceeds from the registration of the emotion to test it by the standard Of the universal idea. But it must never be forgotten that the idea is the germ Of the poem; that the truth and univer sality Of the idea is the test of the poem's quality.
About the Publisher
Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
