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Poetry for Poetry's Sake An Inaugural Lecture Delivered on June 5, 1901 By: Andrew C. Bradley (1851-1935) |
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HENRY FROWDE, M.A.
PUBLISHER TO THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
LONDON, EDINBURGH
NEW YORK
Poetry
For Poetry's Sake AN INAUGURAL LECTURE DELIVERED ON JUNE 5, 1901
BY A. C. BRADLEY, M.A., LL.D. PROFESSOR OF POETRY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
FORMERLY FELLOW OF BALLIOL COLLEGE
OXFORD
AT THE CLARENDON PRESS
1901
NOTE. This Lecture is printed almost as it was delivered. I am aware
that, especially in the earlier pages, difficult subjects are treated in
a manner far too summary, but they require an exposition so full that it
would destroy the original form of the Lecture, while a slight expansion
would do little to provide against misunderstandings. A. C. B.
POETRY FOR POETRY'S SAKE
One who, after twenty years, is restored to the University where he was
taught and first tried to teach, and who has received at the hands of
his Alma Mater an honour of which he never dreamed, is tempted to speak
both of himself and of her. But I remember that you have come to listen
to my thoughts about a great subject, and not to my feelings about
myself; and, of Oxford, who that holds this Professorship could dare to
speak, when he recalls the exquisite verse in which one of his
predecessors described her beauty, and the prose in which he gently
touched on her illusions and protested that they were as nothing when
set against her age long warfare with the Philistine? How, again,
remembering him and others, should I venture to praise my predecessors?
It would be pleasant to do so, and even pleasanter to me and you if,
instead of lecturing, I quoted to you some of their best passages. But I
could not do this for five years. Sooner or later, my own words would
have to come, and the inevitable contrast. Not to sharpen it now, I will
be silent concerning them also; and will only assure you that I do not
forget them, or the greatness of the honour of succeeding them, or the
responsibility which it entails. Since I left Oxford one change has taken place in its educational
system which may be thought to affect the Professorship of Poetry. A
School of English Language and Literature has been founded, and has
attracted a fair number of candidates. Naturally I rejoice in this
change, knowing from experience the value of these studies; and knowing
also from experience, if I may speak boldly, how idle is that dream
which flits about in Oxford and whispers that the mastering of Old
English, on the basis of Teutonic phonology, and the conquest of the
worlds opened by Chaucer and Shakespeare and Swift and Burke and twenty
more, is a business too slight and a discipline not severe enough for
undergraduates. I should be glad to lighten their labours, and, if it
should seem advisable to those who can judge, I propose to give in one
of the three Terms of the year, in addition to my statutory lecture, a
few others intended specially for those who are reading for the School
of English. I wish I could do more, but I resigned my chair in Glasgow
with a view to work of another kind, and I could not have parted from my
students there, to whom I am bound by ties of the most grateful
affection, in order to take up similar duties even in the University of
Oxford. The charming poem with which my predecessor opened his literary career,
and his admirable contributions to poetical history and criticism, prove
that it would have been easy to him to devote his lectures to the
interpretation of particular poets and poems. I believe, however, that
he thought it better to confine himself chiefly to questions in Poetics
or Aesthetics. I can well understand his choice; but, partly because he
made it, I propose to make another, and to discuss these questions, if
at all, only as they are illustrated by particular writers and works.
Still in an inaugural lecture it is customary to take some wider
subject; and so I fear you may have to day to lament the truth of
Addison's remark: 'There is nothing in nature so irksome as general
discourses, especially when they turn chiefly upon words... Continue reading book >>
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Literature |
Poetry |
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