Shelley

I have just been listening to a radio discussion by three members of the staff of the College on a statement by Shelley that the poet is the unacknowledged legislator of mankind. After agreeing that Shelley didn't know what he was talking about these three come to the conclusion that the plebs is far too unintelligent and lazy to appreciate the distilled wisdom in the poetry of such latter day prophets as Pound, Elliot and Auden.

Now sir. I range myself on the side of the old fashioned school who believe that beauty and comprehensibility are no detriment to a poet's writing. It seems to me that the purpose of poetry is to say something in a manner more pleasing to the ear and more stirring to the emotions that it can be said in everyday prose. It is no major part of a poet's job to juggle with philosophical truths and theories; men like Bertrand Russell can do it better. Great poetry needs no interpretation. You don't need to take an Honours course in English to appreciate such lines as "Thus sang the uncouth swain to the oaks and rills

While the still moon went out With sandals grey."

or "The sun's rim dips, the stars rush out,"

At one stride comes the dark."

or "Dreaming when dawn's left hand was in the sky"

or "Why man; he doth bestride the narrow world.

Like a colossus."

One could multiply such examples indefinitely.

But evidently such poetry is not to the taste of the literary clique: it has the great disadvantage of being intelligible to the vulgus.