Poetry and the PracticalUniversity of Arkansas Press, 1996 - 124 Seiten Delivered as a three-part lecture series in 1854 at the famous Hibernian Society Hall in Charleston, South Carolina, Simm's spirited defense of poetry stands in the noble line of poetic credos from poets such as Sir Philip Sidney and Percy Bysshe Shelley. It is the only full-length work of its kind in American literature, and it has never before been published. Seventh in the University of Arkansas Press's Simms Series, Poetry and the Practical is a clear, forceful rebuttal of arguments that would relegate poetry to the margins of life. It proclaims the high calling of poets as spokesmen and romantic visionaries, underscoring their mission to reveal truth and passion, mind and heart and to transcend the limiting bounds of the empirical. In proving poetry's utility and worth, Simms uses all the tools of persuasion open to him: his wide reading, his considerable knowledge of the history of culture and civilizations, his understanding of the values of place and tradition, and, above all, an oratorical eloquence, which allows his words to leave the page in a rush of inspiration. These lectures, which still retain their identity as scripts prepared and punctuated for performance, provide profound insight into Simms the poet and into the effects of industrialization, the southern sensibility, and the influence of European thought on southern literature at a critical point in that literature's development. |
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abstract appetite audience beautiful become bird song Charleston Chaucer Coleridge Common Sense conceive conquest craving creatures daily decreed Defense of Poetry degree Deity divine earth echoes elevated empire endowments Erasmus Darwin essential Evert Duyckinck exercise eyes faith fancies flower Goth grasp heart honored hope human Imaginative faculty Imaginative Genius immortality influences inspired instincts invention language lecture lessons living Livy March material ment mind ministry moral mysterious nation nature necessity never object paragraph passions philosophy Poe's poem poet poet's poetic Poetic Principle possession practical progress prophet race religion Roman and Assyrian Samuel F. B. Morse secret selfish sensibilities sentiments Shelley Shelley's Defense Sidney Sidney's Simms wrote Simms's simply society song soul South Carolina Southern spiritual subdue sweet sympathies tastes teach teachers things Thomas Hood tical tion toils true truth utilitarian virtues Visigoths vision voice vulgar Washington Allston William Gilmore Simms wing wingéd Thought