The Poetic Form — Why Less Poetry Today Than in the Past?

1919

The Poetic Form

Perhaps it is but the child of fancy temporarily coupled with pessimism, but it does seem as though there was little poetry being written nowadays that can compare with the stately and heart-searching work of the old masters. Yet there never was a time when those who use the rhythmic method of expression had a greater and more expert mastery of form, and when there was so large a number of men of education from whose ranks great poets might be expected to rise.

Almost any one can reel off the names of the great poets of the past, but who knows the names of the great poets of today? Isn't the dearth of them explained by the fact that the poetic form of expression belongs not at all in a day when business is the god of men. The poetic form is graceful and pretty and thrilling, when linked with a great theme, but the rules governing its use tend toward indirection of statement and confusion of thought. Or at least, as compared with the possibilities of the prose form the poetic form lacks practicability. And this is a practical age.

The fact that poetry depends for its charm largely on the rhythm and similarly-sounding line endings makes it a poor rival with prose in the minds of the average man of business; and the fact that prose does not bar a poetical expression of thought tends to further confirmation in practical minds that they haven't time to bother with trying to find out what the poet is trying to say.

—The Evening State Journal and Lincoln Daily News, Lincoln, NE, Feb. 7, 1919, p. 8.