Poetry Said Nourishment To Supplement Daily Bread

Ohio, 1940

A group of about fifty poetry lovers met at the Brumback Library last night to enjoy Rev. John H. Lamy's talk on "Standards of Poetic Excellence."

Rev. Lamy began by saying we need other nourishment than our daily bread and that is poetry. Without it our civilization would soon be at an end. We need not only to read poetry but we should write poetry as a form of self expression. The main value in writing is in what it does to us.

Poetry, according to Rev. Lamy's definition, is "Great thought expressed in artistic language." Verse, he said, is any thought that rhymes, while doggerel has no intention of being great thought. There are many possible standards of poetic excellence, depending on the approach, whether it is as a writer, a critic or an appreciative layman. A good way to judge a poem is to ask, "Is this one I would like to memorize?"

First, great poetry is great though, and Rev. Lamy listed and commented on six great poetic themes — aspiration, or the upward climb of the soul; nature, for beautiful nature does for us what human relations cannot do; home and country, poems that inspire patriotism and love of country, and here Rev. Lamy voiced a public protest against the silly parody on our great poems; courage, poems that make us want to draw in our chins and try again; mercy and justice, showing our responsibility toward our brother; and immortality.

Second, great poetry must be artistic in expression. Such poems make one see things; they paint pictures. All through his talk, Rev. Lamy illustrated his points by reading parts of his favorite poems, many of them learned when a boy, and he closed by commending the reading and memorizing of great poetry and the setting down of one's own thoughts.

—Van Wert Times-Bulletin, Van Wert, OH, Oct. 26, 1940, page 6.