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Transcriber's Notes: Variations in spelling and hyphenation have been left as in the original except in the Index where the spelling has been changed to match the spelling in the body of the text. A complete list of corrections follows the text. Other notes also follow the text.
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ALBERT MORDELL Author of: The Erotic Motive in Literature Dante and Other Waning Classics The Shifting of Literary Values
COPYRIGHT, 1921, BY BONI & LIVERIGHT, INC.
_Printed in the United States of America_
CHAPTER III. ECSTASY, NOT RHYTHM, ESSENTIAL TO POETRY 42
CHAPTER IV. PROSE THE NATURAL LANGUAGE OF THE LITERATURE OF ECSTASY 77
CHAPTER V. PROSE PRECEDES VERSE HISTORICALLY 96
CHAPTER VI. BLANK VERSE AND FREE VERSE AS FORMS OF PROSE 111
CHAPTER VII. MORAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL IDEAS AS POETRY WHEN WRITTEN WITH ECSTASY 123
CHAPTER VIII. POETRY RISES ABOVE ART FOR ART'S SAKE AND INTUITION 138
CHAPTER IX. HIGH FORM OF POETRY ECSTATIC PRESENTATION OF ADVANCED SOCIAL IDEALS 152
CHAPTER X. LITERATURE OF ECSTASY EMANATES FROM THE UNCONSCIOUS 179
CHAPTER XI. LOVE ECSTASY IN ARABIAN POETRY 203
From time immemorial it has been assumed that poetry is something which is caviare to the general public. A "poem" even to-day is supposed to be a literary composition that is in artificial language arranged in a metrical pattern, often conveying a trite idea or enshrining an ineffective image. Thousands of volumes and essays have been written on poetry, and instead of fathoming a true conception of its nature, they have dealt with the trappings and garments which clothe it; these indeed have often been confused with poetry itself. As a result, there has grown around the pathway leading to poetry an endless maze of shrubbery. The reader who has no knowledge of rules and laws relating to verse, who is ignorant of technical requirements and established uses, labors under the delusion that he does not like poetry. Though he reads many works in prose that stir a deep emotional appeal within him, he does not regard himself as one of those lovers who haunt the foot of Parnassus Hill.