Title:  The World’s Best Poetry —­ Volume 10

Author:  Various
        Edited by Bliss Carman

Release Date:  July 17, 2004 [EBook #12925]

Language:  English

Character set encoding:  ASCII

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THE WORLD’S BEST POETRY

[Illustration]

     I Home:  Friendship
    ii Love
   iii Sorrow and Consolation
    iv The Higher Life
     V Nature
    VI Fancy:  Sentiment
   VII Descriptive:  Narrative
  VIII National Spirit
    IX Tragedy:  Humor
     X Poetical Quotations

THE WORLD’S BEST POETRY

IN TEN VOLUMES, ILLUSTRATED

Editor-in-Chief
bliss Carman

Associate Editors
John Vance Cheney
Charles G.D.  Roberts
Charles F. Richardson
Francis H. Stoddard

Managing Editor
John R. Howard

1904

The World’s Best Poetry Vol.  X

POETICAL QUOTATIONS

AFTER ALL, WHAT IS POETRY

By
John R. Howard

* * * * *

AFTER ALL, WHAT IS POETRY?

By John Raymond Howard.

Considering the immense volume of poetical writing produced, and lost or accumulated, by all nations through the ages, it is of curious interest that no generally accepted definition of the word “Poetry” has ever been made.  Of course, all versifiers aim at “poetry”; yet, what is poetry?

Many definitions have been attempted.  Some of these would exclude work by poets whom the world agrees to call great; others would shut out elements that are undeniably poetic; still others, while not excluding, do not positively include much that must be recognized as within the poetical realm.  In brief, all are more or less partial.

Perhaps a few examples may make this clearer, and show, too, the difficulty of the problem.

“Poetry,” says Shelley, “is the record of the best and happiest moments of the happiest and best minds.”  But how can this include that genuine poetic genius, Byron, who gloried in being neither good nor happy?  Lord Jeffrey, one of the keenest of critics, says that the term may properly be applied to “every metrical composition from which we derive pleasure without any laborious exercise of the understanding.”  In this category, what becomes of Browning, whom Sharp characterizes