Project Gutenberg's The World's Best Poetry Volume IV., by Bliss Carman

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Title: The World's Best Poetry Volume IV.

Author: Bliss Carman

Release Date: June 28, 2004 [EBook #12759]

Language: English

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THE WORLD'S BEST POETRY

    I Home: Friendship
    II Love
   III Sorrow and Consolation
    IV The Higher Life
     V Nature
    VI Fancy Sentiment
   VII Descriptive: Narrative
  VIII National Spirit
    IX Tragedy: Humor
     X Poetical Quotations

THE WORLD'S BEST POETRY

IN TEN VOLUMES, ILLUSTRATED

Editor-in-Chief

BLISS CARMAN

Associate Editors

John Vance Cheney
Charles G.D. Roberts
Charles F. Richardson
Francis H. Stoddard

Managing Editor

John R. Howard

1904

The World's Best Poetry

Vol. IV

THE HIGHER LIFE

RELIGION AND POETRY
By
WASHINGTON GLADDEN

NOTICE OF COPYRIGHTS.

I.

American poems in this volume within the legal protection of copyright are used by the courteous permission of the owners,—either the publishers named in the following list or the authors or their representatives in the subsequent one,—who reserve all their rights. So far as practicable, permission has been secured also for poems out of copyright.

PUBLISHERS OF THE WORLD'S BEST POETRY. 1904.

Messrs. D. APPLETON & CO., New York.—W.G. Bryant: "The Future
Life."

The ROBERT CLARKE COMPANY, Cincinnati.—W.D. Gallagher: "The
Laborer."

Messrs. T.Y. CROWELL & CO., New York.—S.K. Bolton: "Her Creed."

Messrs. E.P. DUTTON & CO., New York.—Ph. Brooks: "O Little Town of
Bethlehem;" E. Sears: "The Angel's Song."

Messrs. HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO., Boston.—Alice Cary: "My Creed;"
Phoebe Cary: "Nearer Home;" J.F. Clarke: "The Caliph and Satan,"
"Cana;" R.W. Emerson: "Brahma," "Good-bye," "The Problem;" Louise
I. Guiney: "Tryste Noël;" J. Hay: "Religion and Doctrine;" C.W.
Holmes: "The Living Temple;" H.W. Longfellow: "King Robert of
Sicily," "Ladder of St. Augustine," "Psalm of Life," "Santa Filomena,"
"Sifting of Peter," "Song of the Silent Land," "To-morrow;" S.
Longfellow: "Vesper Hymn;" J.R. Lowell: "Vision of Sir Launfal;"
Frances P.L. Mace: "Only Waiting;" Caroline A.B. Mason: "The
Voyage;" T. Parker: "The Higher Good," "The Way, the Truth, and
the Life;" Eliza Scudder: "The Love of God," "Vesper Hymn;" E.C.
Stedman: "The Undiscovered Country;" Harriet B. Stowe: "Knocking,
Ever Knocking," "The Other World;" J. Very: "Life," "The Spirit
Land;" J.G. Whittier: "The Eternal Goodness," "The Meeting," "The
Two Angels," "The Two Rabbis;" Sarah C. Woolsey: "When."

The J.B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY, Philadelphia.—Margaret J. Preston:
"Myrrh-Bearers."

Messrs. LITTLE, BROWN & CO., Boston.—J.W. Chadwick: "The Rise of
Man;" Emily Dickinson: "Found Wanting," "Heaven."

The LOTHROP PUBLISHING COMPANY, Boston.—P.H. Hayne: "Patience."

Messrs. L.C. PAGE & CO., Boston.—C.G.D. Roberts: "The Aim,"
"Ascription."

Messrs. SCOTT, FORESMAN & CO., Chicago.—C.P. Taylor: "The Old
Village Choir."

Messrs. HERBERT S. STONE & CO., Chicago.—G. Santayana: "Faith."

The YOUNG CHURCHMAN COMPANY, Milwaukee.—A.C. Coxe: "The Chimes of
England."

II.

American poems in this volume by the authors whose names are given below are the copyrighted property of the authors, or of their representatives named in parenthesis, and may not be reprinted without their permission, which for the present work has been courteously granted.

PUBLISHERS OF THE WORLD'S BEST POETRY. 1904.

A. Coles (A. Coles, Jr., M.D.); J.A. Dix (Rev. Morgan Dix, D.D.); P.L. Dunbar; W.C. Gannett; W. Gladden; S.P. McL. Pratt; O. Huckel; Ray Palmer (Dr. Charles R. Palmer); A.D.F. Randolph (Arthur D.F. Randolph).

RELIGION AND POETRY

BY WASHINGTON GLADDEN.

The time is not long past when the copulative in that title might have suggested to some minds an antithesis,—as acid and alkali, or heat and cold. That religion could have affiliation with anything so worldly as poetry would have seemed to some pious people a questionable proposition. There were the Psalms, in the Old Testament, to be sure; and the minister had been heard to allude to them as poetry: might not that indicate some heretical taint in him, caught, perchance, from the "German neologists" whose influence we were beginning to dread? It did not seem quite orthodox to describe the Psalms as poems; and when, a little later, some one ventured to speak of the Book of Job as a dramatic poem, there were many who were simply horrified. Indeed, it was difficult for many good people to consider the Biblical writings as in any sense literature; they belonged in a category by themselves, and the application to them of the terms by which we describe similar writings in other books appeared to many good men and women a kind of profanation. This was not, of course, the attitude of educated men and women, but something akin to it affected large numbers of excellent people.

We are well past that period, and the relations of religion and poetry may now be discussed with no fear of misunderstandings. These relations are close and vital. Poetry is indebted to religion for its largest and loftiest inspirations, and religion is indebted to poetry for its subtlest and most luminous interpretations.

Religion is related to poetry as life is related to art. Religion is life, the life of God in the soul of man—the response of man's spirit to the attractions of the divine Spirit. Poetry is an interpretation of life. Religious poetry endeavors to express, in beautiful forms, the facts of the religious life. There is poetry that is not religious; poetry which deals only with that which is purely sensuous, poetry which does not hint at spiritual facts, or divine relations; and there is religion which has but little to do with poetry: but the highest