The thought must
be as beautiful as possible; the expression must be as beautiful as
possible. Essential beauty and formal beauty must be wedded, and the
union is poetry. Other principles than beauty may govern a literary
production. The purpose may be, first, absolute clearness. That will
not make poetry. It will make good mathematical demonstration; it may
make a good news item; but not poetry. The predominant sentiment may
be ethical. That may give us a sermon, but it will not give a poem. A
poem is first of all beautiful, beautiful in its content of thought,
and beautiful in its expression through words....
"The first and chief element in a poem is beauty of thought, and that
beauty may relate to any department, material, mental, or spiritual,
in which beauty can reside. Such poetry may describe a misty desert,
a flowery mead, a feminine form, a ruddy sky, a rhythmic waterfall, a
blue-bird's flutterings, receding thunder, a violet's scent, the spicy
tang of apples, the thrill of clasped arms and a lover's kiss. Or it
may rise higher, and rest in the relations of things, in similes and
metaphors; it may infuse longing and love and passion; it may descant
fair reason and meditative musing. Or, in highest flight, beauty
may range over the summits of lofty purpose, inspiring patriotism,
devotion, sacrifice, till it becomes one with the love of man and the
love of God, even as the fading outline of a mountain melts into the
blue sky which envelops it.
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