The chief end of Poetry, then, is to induce Transcendental Feeling experienced as solemn sense of the immediate presence of "That which was, and is, and ever shall be "—in the Poet's patient, by throwing him suddenly, for a moment, into the state of dream-consciousness, out of a waking consciousness which the Poet supplies with objects of interest; the sudden lapse being effected in the patient by the communication to him of images and other products of the Poet's dreamconsciousness, through the medium of language generally, but not always, distinguished from that of ordinary communication by rhythm and melody. But the same result-the induction of the same form of Transcendental Feeling-is produced, not only by the means which the Poet employs,-dream-imagery communicated by language generally, but not necessarily, rhythmic and melodious, but also by different artistic means-by the means which the Painter and the Musician respectively employ; indeed—and this seems to me to be a matter of firstrate importance for the Theory of Poetry-it is sometimes produced by mere Nature herself without the aid of any art, and by events as they happen in one's life, and, above all, by scenes and situations and persons remembered out of the days of childhood and youth. 'We are always dreaming," Renan (I think) says somewhere, "of faces we knew when we were eighteen." In this connection let me ask the reader to consider Wordsworth's lines beginning There was a Boy; ye knew him well, ye cliffs It seems to me that the mere scene described in these linesa scene to which it would not be difficult to find parallels in any one's experience-is, entirely apart from the language in which it is described, and simply as a picture in the mind of the person who remembers it, and in the minds of those to whom he describes it, the milieu in which true poetic effect is experienced. As I write this, I can hardly recall a line of Wordsworth's description; but the picture which the reading of his description has left in my mind is distinct; and it is in dwelling on the picture that I feel the poetic effectas it was, I am convinced, in dwelling on the picture, before he composed a line of the poem, that the poet himself experienced the feeling which he has communicated to me. And the re-reading of such a poem is more likely to impair than to enhance the feeling experienced by one who has once for all pictured the scene. Lf The more I read and re-read the works of the great poets, and the more I study the writings of those who have some Theory of Poetry to set forth, the more am I convinced that the question What is Poetry? can be properly answered only if we make What it does take precedence of How it does it. The result produced by Poetry-identical, I hold, with that produced by the other fine arts, and even sometimes by the mere contemplation of Nature and Human Life is the one thing of prime importance to be kept always in view, but is too often lost sight of in the examination of the means by which Poetry produces it, as distinguished from those by which, say, Painting produces it. Much that is now being written on the Theory of Poetry leaves one with the impression that the writers regard the end of Poetry as something sui generis in fact, something not to be distinguished from the employment of technique peculiar to Poetry among the fine arts.1 I shall return to this point afterwards. In making the essential charm of Poetry-that for the sake of which, in the last resort, it exists-lie in its power of inducing, in certain carefully chosen circumstances, and so of regulating, Transcendental Feeling experienced as solemn sense of "That which was, and is, and ever shall be" overshadowing us with its presence, I must not be taken to mean that there is no Poetry where this sense is not induced as a distinct ecstatic experience. Great Poetry, just in those places where it is at its very greatest, indeed shows its peculiar power not otherwise than by inducing such distinct ecstatic experience; but generally, poetic effect-not the very greatest, but yet indisputably poetic effect-is produced by something less- by the presence of this form of Transcendental Feeling in a merely nascent state,—just a little more, and it would be there distinctly; as it is, there is a 1 Mr. Courthope (Life in Poetry, p. 78) says: "Poetry lies in the invention of the right metrical form-be it epic, dramatic, lyric, or satiric-for the expres sion of some idea universally interesting to the imagination." And cf. p. 63. L "magic," as we say, in the picture called up, or the natural sentiment aroused, which fills us with wondering surmiseof what, we know not. This "magic" may be illustrated perhaps most instructively from lyric poetry, and there, from the lightest variety of the kind, from the simple love song. The pictures and sentiments suggested in the love song, regarded in themselves, belong to an experience which seems to be, more than any other, realised fully in the present, without intrusion of past or future to overcast its blue day with shadow. But look at these natural pictures and sentiments not directly, but as reflected in the magic mirror of Poetry! They are still radiant in the light of their Present -for let us think now only of the happy love song, not of the love song which is an elegy-they are still in their happy Present; but they are not of it-they have become something "rich and strange." No words can describe the change which they have suffered; it is only to be felt as in such lines as these: Das Mädchen. Ich hab' ihn gesehen! Der Jüngling. Hier muss ich sie finden! Dann trat sie verlegen Und schamroth zurück. Ist 's Hoffnung, sind 's Träume ? Ihr Felsen, ihr Bäume, Entdeckt mir die Liebste, Entdeckt mir mein Glück! The magic of such lines as these is due, I cannot doubt, to the immediate presence of some great mass of feeling which they rouse, and, at the same time, hold in check, behind our mere understanding of their literal meaning. The pictures and sentiments conjured up, simple and familiar though they are, have yet that about them which I can only compare with the mysterious quality of those indifferent things which are so carefully noticed, and those trifling thoughts which are so seriously dwelt upon, in an hour of great trouble. But the Transcendental Feeling which, being pent up behind our understanding of their literal meaning, makes the magic of such lines, may burst through the iridescent film which contains it. We have an example of this in the transfiguration of the Earthly into the Heavenly Beatrice. The Transcendental Feeling latent behind our understanding of the praise of Beatrice in the earlier sonnets and canzoni of the Vita Nuova emerges as a distinct experience when we assist at her praise in the Paradiso. Contrast the eleventh sonnet of the Vita Nuova with the twenty-fifth, which, with its commentary, is a prelude to the Paradiso. The eleventh sonnet of the Vita Nuova ends : Aiutatemi, donne, a farle onore. Quel ch' ella par quand' un poco sorride, Here it is the magic of the lines which is all in all. Now let us turn to the twenty-fifth, the last, sonnet of the Vita Nuova, and to the words after it ending the book with the promise of more worthy praise-more worthy, because offered with a deeper sense of the encompassing presence of "That which was, and is, and ever shall be " : Oltre la spera, che più larga gira, Passa il sospiro ch' esce del mio core: Io non lo intendo, si parla sottile Sicch' io lo intendo ben, donne mie care. "Straightway after this sonnet was writ, there appeared unto me a marvellous vision, wherein I beheld things which made me determine not to say more concerning this Blessed One until I should be able to speak of her more worthily. To this end I studied with all diligence, as she knoweth well. Wherefore, if it shall be the pleasure of Him through Whom all things live that my life endure for some years, I hope to say of her that which never before hath been said of woman. And then may it please Him Who is Lord of Courtesy that my Soul may go to behold the glory of her Lady, to wit, of that Blessed Beatrice, who in glory doth gaze upon the face of Him Who is blessed for evermore." 4. TRANSCENDENTAL FEELING, THE EXPERIENCE TO WHICH THE PLATONIC MYTH AND ALL OTHER FORMS OF POETRY APPEAL, EXPLAINED GENETICALLY. Transcendental Feeling I would explain genetically (as every mood, whatever its present value may be, that is another matter, ought to be explained) as an effect produced within consciousness (and, in the form in which Poetry is chiefly concerned with Transcendental Feeling, within the dream-consciousness) by the persistence in us of that primeval condition from which we are sprung, when Life was still as sound asleep as Death, and there was no Time yet. That we should fall for a while, now and then, from our waking, timemarking life, into the timeless slumber of this primeval life is easy to understand; for the principle solely operative in that primeval life is indeed the fundamental principle of our nature, being that "Vegetative Part of the Soul" which made from the first, and still silently makes, the assumption on which our whole rational life of conduct and science rests -the assumption that Life is worth living. No arguments which Reason can bring for, or against, this ultimate truth |