LITEEAKY VALUES 17 



taohed from the thought," but that they " seize it 

 in its very centre, in its interior, and join and bind 

 it." 



V 



The keener appreciation in Europe of literature 

 as a fine art is no doubt the main reason why Poe 

 is looked upon over there as our most noteworthy 

 poet. Poe certainly had a more consummate art 

 than any other American singer, and his productions 

 are more completely the outcome of that art. They 

 are literary feats. " The Eaven " was as deliber- 

 ately planned and wrought out as is any piece of 

 mechanism. Its inspiration is verbal and technical. 

 " The truest poetry is most feigning," says Touch- 

 stone, and this is mainly the conception of poetry 

 that prevails in European literary circles. Poe's 

 poetry is artistic feigning, like good acting. It is 

 to that extent disinterested. He does not speak 

 for himself, but for the artistic spirit. He has 

 never been popular in this country, for the reason 

 that art, as such, is far less appreciated here than 

 abroad. The stress of life here is upon the moral 

 and intellectual elements much more than upon the 

 aesthetic. We demand a message of the poet, or 

 that he shall teach us how to live. Poe had no 

 message but that of art ; he made no contribution 

 to our stock of moral ideas ; he made no appeal to 

 the conscience or manhood of the race ; he did not 

 touch the great common workaday mind of our peo- 

 ple. He is more akin to the Latin than to the Anglo- 



