Chapter 25, Literature, Chapter 26, Literati Summary and Analysis

Mencken turns from literary criticism to literature in Chapter 25. He begins with a discussion of the mystery of inspiration, of how odd it is that some days ideas flow freely and others they are dammed up. All experience this. It may initially seem hard to account for; Mencken speculates that it might be biological. In the next piece, Mencken argues that poetry should be either a series of intrinsically musical words or a series of false ideas, allowing the reader to escape from life. It can also be both. In the same essay, Mencken comments that a man's taste in poetry is an indicator of his inner cravings and "credulities."

Mencken next criticizes new poets for being too cerebral, attacking the problems of art scientifically. He argues later that books written on prose style are...