Joseph Joubert, the
French epigrammatist, says:
"Like the nectar of the bee, which turns to honey the dust of flowers,
or like that liquor which converts lead into gold, the poet has a
breath that fills out words, gives them light and color. He knows
wherein consists their charm, and by what art enchanted structures may
be built with them."
Familiarity with poetry thus becomes to the attentive reader an
insensible training in language, as well as an elevation of mind and
spirit. Superiority of spirit and of form, then, offers good
reasons why the intelligent--whether for stimulation, consolation,
self-culture, or mere amusement in idle hours--should avail of a due
proportion of this finest expression of the sweetest, the highest, and
the deepest emotional experiences of life, in the realms of nature, of
art, and of humanity itself.
A few words from the gifted William Ellery Channing the elder
epitomize some striking thoughts on this subject:
"We believe that poetry, far from injuring society, is one of the
great instruments of its refinement and exaltation. It lifts the mind
above ordinary life, gives it a respite from depressing cares, and
awakens the consciousness of its affinity with what is pure and noble.
In its legitimate and highest efforts it has the same tendency and
aim with Christianity,--that is, to spiritualize our nature.
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