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Untitled Article
the operation and the result With mechanical precision . He breathes the mental air which they have purified . Though it may have been doled out to him with a niggardly hand , he has yet received a portion of that national character , which they contributed to form . He can enjoy poetry , for he is a man and an Englishman . What has always been , so far as it was their
spontaneous choice and purchase , the library , even at the smallest , of the cottage of the poorest ? We say spontaneous , for we put out of the question the tracts and good books , which , being given by superiors , must be . accepted . For many a generation the minimum of the poor man ' s library has at least contained three volumes , his bible , his hymn-book , and the Pilgrim ' s Progressall poetry , each in its way , and cherished by him , though he may
not be aware of the fact , because they are poetry as well as religion . The religion of the poor is always poetry ; their idolatries of old were poetical ; their superstitions in the middle ages were poetical ; their present . version of Christian theology is poetical ; nor will the advocates of a truer and purer version of that religion succeed in rendering it popular , until they feel themselves , and display to others , its superiority , not only in logical
consistency but in imaginative beauty . The bible itself is at once the highest source and the highest gratification of poetical taste . It embodies so powerfully the elements of universal poetry , which appeal to humanity in all countries , that it has borne triumphantly along with them the peculiar characteristics of the region in which it originated , and orientalized the associations of Christendom . If to this little library the means of increase
are afforded , it is generally in directions which justify our inference from its original character . Extend education , extend reading , strengthen and enlarge the mind , and poetry ' grows with its growth , and strengthens with its strength . ' There is then , in this sense also , a poetry of the poor . And if they possess the principles of its enjoyment , they must also , they do , in them possess the materials for its production .
All the world knows , that some of the very highest names in every department of intellectual achievement are those of men T ^ ho have sprung from the lowliest origin . This has pre-eminently been the case in mathematical science , while it has been common also both in the fine and useful arts , in law , literature , politics , theology , and even in poetry . But in their elevation they have also acquired that education , which we have assumed as generally
distinguishing the rich from the poor . They have thus qualified themselves to produce the kind of composition which we have characterized as the poetry of the wealthier classes . The distinction of classes has been overwhelmed in these splendid developments of humanity . Such was Akenside , who , as our author justly says , ' breathed the soul of Plato into British song . ' In such cases as these , the individuals had ceased to be poor and of
Untitled Article
192 The Poor ahd their Poetry .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1832, page 192, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1808/page/48/
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