NOTES AND COMMENT

(Heavy numerals refer to lines of the poems)

THERE are two ways of reading poetry, both profitable. One is to read with the single purpose of discovering the author's meaning, just what ideas and emotions he is trying to make his readers understand and feel; and the other is to read with the intention of discovering also the interest and value in every allusion which he makes. For poetry even more than prose is compact; it is full of ideas which gain a great deal of their value because of their association with other ideas which are already in the mind of the writer and which he presumes to be in the mind of the reader also. When Wordsworth, for example, writes

"Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathéd horn,"

he has in mind certain definite figures of Greek mythology, and if the reader does not know whom the Greeks imagined Proteus and Triton to be, he misses to some extent at least the effect of Wordsworth's imagery. It is true, however, that in many cases the reader's imagination is stimulated by such names and allusions to delightful visions of its own; and it is very easy to overestimate the value of investigating and discovering the exact significance of the poet's references. Certainly nobody would deny that it is much more important to understand his message than it is to understand his allusions, and if discussion of his allusions distracts the reader's attention from the real meaning and delight of the poem as a whole, then such discussion has been carried too far.

The most important thing, then, for the reader of these poems to ask himself is, What idea has Wordsworth or Shelley or Scott tried to make plain? What does he mean? Sometimes the emotion of the poem is very simple, as in The Reverie of Poor Susan, where Wordsworth's attempt is only to tell the reader how this poor old woman in

London, whenever she used to hear a caged thrush singing, was reminded of her home when she was a girl in the country, and how beautiful and yet how sad were her recollections. Sometimes the emotion is more complicated, as in Shelley's Ode to the West Wind, in which the poet's apostrophe to the wind is bound up with his own feeling that he and the wind are akin to each other, trying to accomplish the same renewal of life in a dead world. Sometimes, as in Wordsworth's Ode on Intimations of Immortality, the feeling is not to be called purely emotional, but is the expression of wonder and speculation that is almost a kind of philosophy. It is generally true, however, that in poetry of a fine and high order, such as the selections in this book almost exclusively consist of, the idea or the emotion is simple and clear, and with the assistance of a few suggestions a reader, even if he has not been very much accustomed to the reading of poetry, ought not to feel himself confused or doubtful about what each poem means. Whether the meaning of the poem does or does not particularly appeal to him, depends of course on what his own moods and feelings and training have been. The more he reads and the longer he lives and continues to widen his experiences, of course the more open he will be to different sorts of emotional interest. But the man or woman never lived to whom some sorts of poetry did not appeal, and the idea that one does not "like poetry" means simply that one has never tried to read it, or else that one has read it as an exercise rather than as a pleasure.

For it is absolutely necessary that in reading poetry we realize that we are not reading prose. The ideas which are presented to us in poetry are so presented because they are fitted to that kind of presentation, and to understand them and enjoy them we must be able to appreciate the way in which they are presented. Anybody who can read, can read prose; but to read poetry some special training is necessary. This training concerns itself chiefly of course with the matter of rhythm. The chief beauty of poetry, so far as rhythm is concerned, lies in the contrast between the steady onward movement of the idea and the regular recurring beat of the verse. If, in reading, the expression of the idea is sacrificed to the desire to emphasize the regular beat of the verse, the reading becomes monotonous, mechan

ical, and dull. One might almost as well substitute la la la, la la la, la la la, for the words of the poet. If on the other hand the reader is so much taken up with the expression of the poet's idea that he ignores the beat of the poet's music, then he is really defeating the poet's own intention. For he is reading the ideas as if they had been written in prose. But the reader must pay attention also to the general form of the poem, as well as to its arrangement of meter. We may start with the assumption that the poets did nothing carelessly, that if they used a particular form they did so because they thought that form was especially suited to the ideas they had at that particular time to express. In the Ode to the West Wind, as has been said, Shelley's emotions are more or less complicated. So he adopts a verse-form which gives him room fully to develop those emotions with due regard to their dignity as well as to their beauty. Wordsworth, on the other hand, in The Reverie of Poor Susan, with his extremely simple idea, can use a simple form of verse. It is thus worth while to notice the different forms which the various writers employ, and to ask oneself why this form or that was used in this instance. The immense variety of these forms is an interesting illustration of the fact that at this particular period every poet was a law to himself. There was no prescribed fashion in accordance with which he had to write.

The following notes, therefore, are planned first to explain the meaning of any particular poem when that meaning seems in any way obscure; second, to comment upon such allusions or such unusual words or phrases in the poem as seem to demand comment; and third, to bring out in some cases the essential relation of the form of the poem to the idea which it is intended to convey.

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

THE REVERIE OF POOR SUSAN (Page 3)

This is one of many poems in which Wordsworth exemplified his theory that poetry should deal with simple subjects in simple language. The poem arose, he said, from his "observation of the affecting music of these birds (canaries) hanging in this way in the

London streets during the freshness and stillness of the Spring morning." Lothbury and Cheapside (lines 7, 8) are streets in London.

SIMON LEE, THE OLD HUNTSMAN (Page 3)

Coleridge, writing in 1817, declared that if Wordsworth had cut out one hundred lines of his poetry, half the criticism directed against him would have been avoided. Some such faulty lines are in this poem-see for instance stanza ten. On the other hand, the final stanza is Wordsworth on a high level. A careful reading of this poem, and especially of the eighth and ninth stanzas, will enable one to understand pretty well the lesson of the commonplace as Wordsworth tried to teach it.

LINES WRITTEN IN EARLY SPRING (Page 7)

This is one of the poems in which Wordsworth's unusual view of Nature comes out most clearly. Note the third and fifth stanzas particularly.

THE TWO APRIL MORNINGS (Page 8)

If you remember Wordsworth's definition of the proper material of poetry you will see how exactly this poem fits his idea.

THE FOUNTAIN (Page 10)

A companion-piece to The Two April Mornings. It illustrates well the unevenness of Wordsworth's power. The first seven stanzas are commonplace; what follows for five stanzas is beautiful; and the work ends with commonplace verses again.

SHE DWELT AMONG UNTRODDEN WAYS (Page 12)

This and the three poems which follow it belong together. Lucy, here addressed, may or may not have been a real person. If she really lived, we do not know who she was.