POETRY AND THE MODERN WORLD.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1085, 25 March 1911, Page 13

POETRY AND THE MODERN WORLD.

Mr. J. W. Mackail, Professor of Poetry in the University of Oxford, who will shortly vacate his office, delivered his last public lecture in tho Examination Schools recently, taking as his subject "Tho Progress of Poetry." ' Whatever reason there might, bo for doubt, as to the present position of poetry, there were, ho said, two things to bo : noted which were encouraging. The first 'of these was a notable and widespread advance both in tho formal technique'of patterned language and in tho apprehension of what great poetry really was and what all poetry ought to be. The second encouraging thing was the advance, eqiiallj' widespread and notable,.,i)i, tho standard and, quality,of 'criticism in-its highest sense, that was to say in the appreciation of poetry.' Increased technical skill and increased appreciation were preparing a way before tho feet of poetry. Amid whatever confusion and distraction, beneath whatever apparent languor and decay, this was a time of manifold arid rapid germination, the ferment was.not that of dissolution but of quickening;,' though for tho flowering and fruitage, for tho actual creation of a new and great poetry, it awaited as it did before Homer, before Virgil,, before Milton, tho incalculable individual genius. But a future ag« might look back to the clouded lights which they- were apt to regard as a" dusk of the .gods,. as the coming of darkness over poetry, and see in them tho first flushings of a splendid dawn. Above all, no inference of discouragement, could be drawn from the enormous masses of minor poetry, or what purported to be poetry, which wero now being produced, and the greater part of which was, as artistic product, as poetical achievement, worthless. This was no new thing; it was common to all times, and at the times of the greatest poets the output of inferior or bad poetry had very probably been larger than ever. The uses of_ minor poetry would make an interesting subject for discussion; he was urged somo timo ago to give a lecture on it, and he was sorry that it was one of tho many links ho must leave to some successor. It was one of tho doubtful joys of a Professor of Poetry that he was called upon to read ana often asked to give an opinion upon a great deal of minor poetry. One thing, however, he might mention, as both interesting and hopeful. Here in Oxford, among the younger "gown," in Tennyson's graceful phrase, tho compositions sent in for the Newdigato Prize during his tenure of office had been on a much higher level both of technical skill and of imaginative value that they used to bo when he acted as an examiner between twenty thirty years ago. This seemed to indicate, ho thought, a larger and better appreciation of poetry among the newer generation. _ A larger appreciation meant, economically, a keenor demand, and demand created supply; artistically it meant a truer and deeper instinct for poetry; and tho instinct for poetry was the same instinct which made poets. This was. tho last Iccturo which ho would give as Professor of Poetry, and he could not quit the office to which the favour of tho University appointed him fivo years ago without some word of farewell. A generation ago or less there was indeed —so tho rumour reached him —some project or suggestion, a vapour u'liich floated on "the skirts of more massive schemes of reform, for extinguishing tho Poetry Professorship and devoting its modest endowments to scientific purposes. Certainly it would be ground for a sharper pain tlia'h that of regret if he thought that any such project were likely to be revived, and that colour might be given to it by the ineffectiveness or inadequacy of the Professor who was now laying down his office. But ho hoped and believed tbat the University would show herself as ever gendrous to tho weakness of her children and servants, and constant to the ideals which they as well as she tried to the best of their ability to inculcate and to pursue.