THE ART-PRINCIPLE AS REPRESENTED 

 IN POETRY 



The subject which is to engage us this morning, 

 ladies and gentlemen, has been stated in your^ pro- 

 gramme by a title, just read, which fits in naturally 

 with your whole present Course, on Art in its Gen- 

 eral Principles and its Particular Phases. The title 

 describes the actual contents of my essay rather 

 more accurately than the one chosen for it when it 

 was first written nine years ago. It was then called 

 The Essential Pj'iticiple of Poetie Art? There is 

 still a use in turning your attention to this former 

 title ; it will afford us a rather more significant start- 

 ing-point. To most of you, I dare say, it would 

 seem more natural to speak of the essential princi- 

 ples of poetic art, so many cooperating conditions, 

 of course, must go to the making of poetry. But I 

 purposely leave the main word of the earlier title in 

 the singular. To follow to the end the varied con- 

 ditions of poetic power, in all their diverging multi- 

 tude, time would wholly fail us. We must content 



1 The essay was read before the Channing AuxiHary Society of 

 San Francisco, October, 1894. 



2 Printed in the Overland Monthly, May, 1885. 



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