6 UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO STUDIES 



stood in a lonely world by a sea of doubt and pain with no shore of 

 hope beyond. 



And yet I felt that these comparatively new doctrines were even 

 then adequately established, and knew that some of our poets were 

 already embodying them as beautiful members in their fabric of verse. 

 Furthermore, I felt that poetry must either be capable of emotionahz- 

 ing, spiritualizing if you will, the facts that seemed grimmest, the 

 scientifically approved doctrines that seemed most forbidding, or 

 must die a death not altogether undeserved. Then by sheer good 

 luck, shortly after hearing that poignantly voiced foreboding, I was 

 brought into renewed and more intimate contact with the pre-Socratic 

 philosophers and the metrical dissertation of that glowing disciple of 

 Epicurus, who "died chief poet by the Tiber-side."^ From this 

 contact was begotten the beHef, soon strengthened by association 

 with Goethe, that evolution offered, not merely poetical material, 

 but the possibility of a poetry more beautiful, more glorious, more 

 nearly final than the world had ever seen. And my beHef has grown 

 steadily to this hour. Naturally, that supreme development can be 

 achieved only when the doctrines have become a part of man's heart 

 and imagination, as well as of his reason. That the hour has not 

 yet struck is obvious, a fact that has been emphasized by our honored 

 Nestor, Professor Charles EHot Norton, in the semi-centennial number 

 of The Atlantic. But the history of mankind has shown that one of 

 the great functions of the Muse is to serve truth or doctrine by an 

 emotionalizing process. From the most primitive chants of unde- 

 veloped tribes to the latest and highest hymn of aspiration, this 

 educatively appealing power of poetry is most unmistakably manifest. 

 Furthermore, the breadth of theme already compassed should lead 

 us to expect that it may readily sweep on to universaHty. In the mean 

 time, poetry will both familiarize itself with the new subject-matter 

 and make it more famiHar to mankind, thus laying the foundations 

 for the world-awaited masterpieces of the future. And it seems to 

 me that in some of our recent poetry this is being done, and even at 

 times finely done. 



' LucRETiDS, De Rerum Natura. 



