POETRY AS POETIC IDEA Such is poetry as music. But the utmost that poetry as music can accomplish is in being a lesser music. And as lesser music it is also a lesser art. Yet poetry must be more than a lesser art. The poet is not merely the imitator, in words, of the composer. He is a creator using verbal material with all of its living implications of action and thought for his raw stuff. Poetry is an art in its own rights and stands on its own feet. Its merits are not borrowed from any other art. Poetry can not do what music does, nor does the poet primarily aim at musical effects. His music is a by-product, a consequence, of an objective that is purely poetical. If the lyric were no more than music it would be but imitation music. But a lyric is more than that. It has a quality that can never be attributed to music, a quality that is due to and derived from its sensuous material, language. And language, although it lends itself to tonal treatment, is yet more than tones. The poetic element of poetry then, its substance, must lie in that which is unique to language and lacking in tones. What is this substance? The appeal of tonal art is primarily, if not purely, sensuous. A tone has no more than a sensuous appeal. It has no effect other than affection, as pleasant or unpleasant. Its ideational connotation is nil. We have seen that this is the reason why music is the purest of the arts, but for that reason also the poorest. Even in the most dramatic musical composition the ideational element is at most vague, a mood rather than an idea. Any verbal interpretation of music is, at its best, but eloquence, at its worst, gibberish. The alleged "fate knocking at the door" motive or theme of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, is irrelevant to the significance of the symphony as music. It is, at best, a mere fancy. People unfamiliar with that legend could never obtain it from the music, and those for whom the music is significant as music have nothing added to their enjoyment from learning its supposed story. The idea of fate is not inherent in the music, is not conveyed by the music, but is read into it, forced upon it from the outside. That is true of all music. Any ideational element is an imposition upon it. Even in program music the story is something apart from the music itself. The composer may be planning his music in accordance with some story, but he is writing music, not a story. And if his music has significance it is as music and not as story or idea. Richard Straus Zarathustra has value as music, not as philosophy. Mathieu But, on the other hand, even in the most melodic poem, the lyric, an idea is inherent, due to the ideational nature of language. Apart from idea language is gibberish, no matter how rhythmical in arrangement and structure. Even the purest of lyric poems, therefore, has more ideational content than the most dramatic or poetic music. Herein lies the uniqueness of language as artistic material and the distinguishing point between music and poetry. In some poetry melody predominates over idea, and we call such poetry lyrical. In some poetry idea predominates over melody, and we have dramatic, epic, or narrative poetry. The sonnet, for instance, is more idea than melody. The lyric is more melody than idea. But idea is the meeting ground of both, and constitutes the poetic element of poetry. Melody is essential to both, as is setting to substance. Without melody the sonnet would be prose, while without idea the lyric would be but imitation music. The substance of poetry is, therefore, idea that approaches melody, that is, pure form, as idea, to distinguish it from prosaic idea. The substance of poetry is the poetic idea, and an examination of the nature of the poetic idea is an examination of the nature of poetry.		Home The Nature and Objective of Aesthetics Art and the Artist The Art Work The Art Work in the Making The Creative Mind  Art and the Artist Art and the Layman The Experience of Beauty Beauty in Music Painting Poetry The Nature of Language The Nature of Poetry Poetry As Verbal Music Poetry As Poetic Idea The Poetic Idea