Art principles in literatureDonnelly, Francis P. (Francis Patrick)
Philosophy
Art principles in literature
Donnelly, Francis P. (Francis Patrick)
Aesthetics; Literature
All of the technical terms, apprehension, judgment, inference and the
rest are to be omitted. The intelligent use of such terms belongs to
college, although the operations and objects which the terms designate
belong to all grades. Through simple, untechnical questions the whole
truth may be understood by each, and every student may be made to go
through operations which are of daily occurrence and which the student
must make habitual by repeated exercise to insure a mastery of the art of
expression. The teacher is an expert mental director, and, setting before
the class a good passage of literature, he will make them think again
and put in order again and express again what the author has done; he
will make them conceive, arrange and express thoughts of their own with
the excellence which teacher and class have noted and appreciated in the
passage. The teacher of literature will be no lecturer in history or in
philosophy or in mathematics, but will be like the teacher of music or
like the physical trainer, who makes his class go through exercises which
he himself has exemplified and which the class immediately practice to
acquire bodily skill then and for the future.
A passage of poetry is designedly taken in this lesson to show how poetry
can be made to contribute to the art of expression. Literature for some
is history, for others philosophy. These center attention on the facts
or ideas. Literature for others is a dreamy, mysterious thing, which you
must look at with awe, speak about with esoteric rhapsody and carefully
lock up again in a glass case. A forward looking lesson in literature
must know what the passage means, but is usually not concerned with the
origin and past history of the author’s meaning. The forward-looking
lesson will not pretend to solve all the mysteries of art and beauty but
will take out of the clouds and put clearly before the class some point
in the art of expression, a point which will be practical and of everyday
use. Such a lesson will be as decidedly vocational as hammering a nail or
rigging up a radio set or rushing around a gymnasium.
The purpose ever before the literature teacher’s mind is appreciation,
leading to mental action and through repeated action to the art of
expression.
THE LESSON
The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,
The lowing herd wind slowly o’er the lea,
The ploughman homeward plods his weary way,
And leaves the world to darkness and to me.
I. ANALYSIS OF THOUGHT
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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