Poetry as an Art

by Max Michelson

"Poetry as an Art" is an article from Poetry, Volume 12.

POETRY: a Magazine of Verse 1918

EXCERPT 

In two ways it finds assuagement. One way is music,

in which is a spurring excitement and comfort at the same
time. The other way is, to put it very crudely, explana
tion of at least a part of the haunting mystery-inter
pretation. Rhythm in other arts is music received through
the eyes instead of through the ear. To these-rhythm
and interpretation, separated or combined-all art forms
can be reduced. In a painted landscape whatever is not
rhythm is interpretation of life. The same is true of a
portrait. What there is in it of the photographic is dese
cration of life; since it is impossible to render in any
medium the thousand qualities pregnant in reality, any
rendering not imbued with the reverential spirits of rhythm
and interpretation is deadly and treacherous. This is also
true of idealization, which usually means a sentimental ren
dering. In addition to being superficial it is also false

bad photography. 

The Egyptian figure El Beled might be taken as an ex
ample of interpretation. It might appear mere realism if
superficially observed. But the sculptor knew his subject
with a sort of god-like knowledge, and he spun from the
depth and strength of his knowledge. I would say played
with it, but the word play is usually misunderstood;
true play is extremely serious. The sculptor of the great
Chephron ennobled his subject-idealized it. 
This was entirely different from our modern way; when we idealize
we are more or less deceitful. There is no real attainment
of depth. The artist's brain is either too lazy or shallow,
or he is content to bank on the observer's shallowness or
laziness. 

Words being so closely associated with immediate human
needs, it is always hard for the poet to escape from these to
the greater needs of the human spirit. It is true that even
the greatest of the ancient works of art were not entirely
free from these influences;till, if the Assyrian man-headed
lion or bull had a taint of the didactic, the artist succeeded
in melting it almost completely in rhythm. The Egyptians,
who did not always bother with rhythm as such, have succeeded
 in giving us the most perfect interpretive art imaginable. 
One can see that readily in Thoueris, the statuette
representing maternity, and more or less readily in most of
their best work. In the early Chinese sculpture, we find
a pure and tender handling of reality combined with simplification. 
In the Hindu art the imagination rambles
freely. In the American aboriginal art, we find a noble
symbolism; and extreme simplification, not only of the human
being, but 6f almost everything in nature. Rhythm is to be
found in most of these, and is predominant in Assyrian art,
in Hittite art, and, in a simple or complex form, in Chinese
and Japanese paintings.


The better models for the modern poet are the ancient
sculptors or oriental painters, as the art elements in them
are purer and more readily discernible. He should learn
from them to simplify his subject, or to idealize it in the
pure and genuine way they did. He should learn from
them what true idealization is, in order to avoid the pseudo,
the shallow, the sentimental, the vulgar and the stupid, all
often mistaken among us for idealization.
As for the rhythm of words, the words in poetry must
be as if born together with the rhythm. But the reader
must learn to distinguish between sing-song or rag-time
rhythm, and deep, pure rhythm. It can be laid down al
most as a rule that a rhythm that carries the reader too
strongly is bad. It will be found to be poor through mo
notony, and through lack of control. One will usually
find the same symptoms in the ideas of the poem. 

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Michelson was a childhood immigrant to America from Lithuania and settled in Chicago, working as a furrier. Later, in 1920 he moved to Seattle, 'soon after his arrival there, a mental hospital had to be his refuge' and there he was to stay until he died, in obscurity, in 1953.