The Poets Poet | Page 2

same general attitude
toward their gift. It is perhaps true that minor poets have been more
loquacious on the subject of their nature than have greater ones, but
some attempt is here made to hold them within bounds, so that they

may not drown out the more meaningful utterances of the master
singers.
The last one hundred and fifty years have been chosen for discussion,
since the beginning of the romantic movement marked the rise of a
peculiarly self-conscious attitude in the poet, and brought his
personality into new prominence. Contemporary verse seems to fall
within the scope of these studies, inasmuch as the "renaissance of
poetry" (as enthusiasts like to term the new stirring of interest in verse)
is revealing young poets of the present day even more frank in
self-revealment than were poets of twenty years ago.
The excursion through modern English poetry involved in these studies
has been a pleasant one. The value and interest of such an investigation
was first pointed out to me by Professor Louise Pound of the University
of Nebraska. It is with sincere appreciation that I here express my
indebtedness to her, both for the initial suggestion, and for the
invaluable advice which I have received from her during my procedure.
I owe much gratitude also to President Wimam Allan Neilson of Smith
College, who was formerly my teacher in Radcliffe College, and to
Professor Hartley Burr Alexander, of the department of Philosophy at
the University of Nebraska, who has given me unstinted help and
generous encouragement.
ELIZABETH ATKINS.
CONTENTS
PREFACE
I. THE EGO-CENTRIC CIRCLE
Apparent futility of verse dealing with the poet.--Its

justification.--The poet's personality the hidden theme of all verse,--The
poet's egotism.--Belief that his inspirations are divine.--Belief in the
immortality of his poems.--The romantic view that the creator is greater
than his creations.--The poet's contempt for uninspired men.--Reaction
of the public to the poet's contempt.--Its retaliation in jeers.--The poet's

wounded vanity.--His morbid self-consciousness.--His self-imposed
solitude.--Enhancement of his egotism by solitude.
II. THE MORTAL COIL
View that genius results from a happy combination of physical
conditions.--The poet's reluctance to embrace such a theory.--His
heredity.--Rank.--Patricians vs. children of the soil.--His body.--Poetic
beauty.--Features expressing alert and delicate senses.--Contrary
conception of poet rapt away from sense.--
Blindness.--Physique.--Health.--Hypersensibility of invalids.-- Escape
from fleshly bondage afforded by perfect health.--The poet's
sex.--Limitations of the woman poet.--Her claims.--The poet's
habitat.--Vogue of romantic solitude.--Savage environment.--Its
advantages.--Growing popularity of the city poet.--The wanderer.-- The
financial status of the poet.--Poverty as sharpener of
sensibility.--The
poet's age.--Vogue of the young poet.--Purity of youthful
emotions.--Early death.--Claims of the aged poet.-- Contemplation after
active life.
III. THE POET AS LOVER
The classic conception.--Love as a disturbing factor in

composition.--The romantic conception.--Love the source of

inspiration.--Fusion of intense passion with repose essential to
poetry.--Poetic love and Platonic love synonymous.--Sensual love not
suggestive.--The poet's ascent to ideal love.--Analogy with ascent
described in Plato's Symposium.--Discontent with ephemeralness of
passion.--Poetry a means of rendering passion eternal.--Insatiability of
the poet's affections.--Idealization of his mistress.--Ideal beauty the real
object of his love.--Fickleness.--Its justification.--Advantage in seeing
varied aspects of ideal beauty.--Remoteness as an essential factor in
ideal love.--Sluggishness resulting from complete content.--Aspiration
the poetic attitude.--Abstract love-poetry, consciously addressed to
ideal beauty.--Its merits and defects.--The sensuous as well as the ideal
indispensable to poetry.

IV. THE SPARK FROM HEAVEN
Reticence of great geniuses regarding inspiration.--Mystery of
inspiration.--The poet's curiosity as to his inspired moments.--Wild
desire preceding inspiration.--Sudden arrest rather than satisfaction of
desire.--Ecstasy.--Analogy with intoxication.--Attitude of reverence
during inspired moments.--Feeling that an outside power is

responsible.--Attempts to give a rational account of inspiration.--The
theory of the sub-conscious.--Prenatal memory.--Reincarnation of dead
geniuses.--Varied conceptions of the spirit inspiring song as the Muse,
nature, the spirit of the universe.--The poet's absolute surrender to this
power.--Madness.--Contempt for the limitations of the human
reason.--Belief in infallibility of inspirations.--Limitations of
inspiration.--Transience.--Expression not given from without.--The
work of the poet's conscious intelligence.--Need for making the vision
intelligible.--Quarrel over the value of hard work.
V. THE POET'S MORALITY
The poet's reliance upon feeling as sole moral guide.--Attack upon his
morals made by philosophers, puritans, philistines.--Professedly
wicked poets.--Their rarity.--Revolt against mass-feeling.--The
aesthetic appeal of sin.--The morally frail poet, handicapped by
susceptibility to passion.--The typical poet's repudiation of
immorality.--Feeling that virtue and poetry are inseparable.--Minor
explanations for this conviction.--The "poet a poem" theory.--Identity
of the good and the beautiful.--The poet's quarrel with the
philistine.--The poet's horror of restraint.--The philistine's unfairness to
the poet's innocence.--The poet's quarrel with the puritan.--The poet's
horror of asceticism.--The poet's quarrel with the philosopher.--Feeling
upon which the poet relies allied to Platonic intuition.
VI. THE POET'S RELIGION
Threefold attack upon the poet's religion.--His lack of theological
temper.--His lack of reverence.--His lack of conformance.--The poet's
defense.--Materialistic belief deadening to poetry.--His idealistic
temper.--His pantheistic leanings.--His reverence for beauty.--His

repudiation of a religion that humbles him.--Compatibility of pride and
pantheism.--The poet's nonconformance.--His occasional
perverseness.-- Inspiring nature of doubt.--The poet's thirst