Page:Our Poets of Today (1918).djvu/23

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INTRODUCTION

Amicus: All that may be; but let us stick to our p's and q's in right sequence: Poetry before Quiddity! How else shall chaos be classified? Poetry belongs to literature, and literature belongs to libraries—not to theatres.

P. M.: Libraries must have card catalogues; ergo, the human soul must be segmented—alphabetically. Or, to illustrate further: In New York City stand two statues of actors: one of Edwin Booth, the other of Shakespeare. Query: Shall Shakespeare be card-catalogued under A (Actors), or under S (Statues)?

Amicus: Under P (Poets), of course.

P. M.: And not under D (Dramatists)?

Amicus: Well, certainly not under CD (Community Dramatists). No; I agree with Yeats, that "to articulate sweet sounds together" is the true task of the poet, difficult and sufficient for all who properly go by that name.

P. M.: I am happy to hear you quote the excellent poet, who is the luckiest of all our poets of today in having a community theatre of his own sort, where he personally has been able to train the actors "to articulate sweet sounds together," and to coöperate on occasion with the excellent designer of masques, Gordon Craig.

Those words of his were also quoted by me in an address on "The Worker in Poetry," delivered in 1910, before the National Institute and Academy of Arts and Letters, and it will, I think, bear directly on