The Little Review, February 1915 (Vol. 1, No. 11)Various
General
The Little Review, February 1915 (Vol. 1, No. 11)
Various
Literature, Modern -- 20th century -- Periodicals
The last words of this statement are peculiarly significant in this
connection. “By his aid alone we may get outside of our skins into the
very heart of the world.” What is the heart of the world? I do not know
it all, emotionally or intellectually, although if I were to trust one
of these endowments in order to render judgment upon poetry, I should
choose the first. On the other hand, Mr. Jones does not know the entire
heart of the world; nor does Mr. Bodenheim. But we may each of us know
some little corner of this heart that the other does not or cannot ever
know. For some of us poetry remains but the supreme expression of mere
external beauty, for others the expression in consummate form of a
purely intellectual process; to others poetry is a weapon wherewith to
pierce the veil of externality and to expose the hidden but the real
reality. The late William James once declared that we were standing on
the verge of new discoveries in feeling and knowledge; that just beyond
us lies a world of new adjustments and new experiences. Of course, in
this instance, James had reference to our new appreciation and estimate
of the value of mysticism in the judgment of certain phases of religious
experiences. But the thing holds true even in poetry; the line between
the poet and the mystic has yet to be drawn. I, for one, should not want
to think myself incapable of enlarging either my soul or my
appreciation. If anybody can show me whether in new terms or not a
hitherto unsuspected and unknown aspect of beauty, I shall be content to
accept that person. I would go further; I should be very thankful that I
had obtained a new point of view with which to regulate both my emotions
and my intellect.
I, for one, saw and felt and appreciated the appeal of the
much-discussed “sieve” poem. To be sure, along with Mr. Jones, I had
previously thought of a sieve only in relation to ashes and garden
earth—and even of that “little triangular sieve that fits into kitchen
sinks.” But if some one can come along and convince me that this
hitherto vulgar and despised implement has inherent in it the
possibilities of metaphysical development, and that a certain person can
be likened to a sieve, why, then I have learned a new aspect of beauty.
And hence, it would seem to me that Mr. Bodenheim has fulfilled every
single requirement that Mr. Jones has put upon the poet. And the only
reason Mr. Jones cannot appreciate these little poems is because,
intellectually and emotionally, he is “born out of due season.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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