So much, then, for the fact that young people, in order to keep alive and develop their natural love of poetry, must have it read to them. The schools do much in this line ; I wish they might do more. If every subject a child studies in school, -- history, literature, geography, almost everything except mathematics, -- were in part interpreted by the poetry belonging to that subject, or illustrating it, poetry would become an ordinary part of the child's experience, and he would be immensely refined and ennobled thereby. Since poetry is "the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge," surely we should not give the child the knowledge, and deny him its finer spirit. Take, for instance, "The Battle of Bannockburn." Suppose that every child, in his study of English history, had that poem well read to him at the appropriate time. Children are hero-worshipers, lovers of bravery. Could any expression of heroic courage be more adequate, more moving, than the wonderful lines beginning:
"Scots, wha hae wi' Wallace bled --"
and moving on with their inspired and inspiring rhythm to their triumphant close? Just the sound of those lines can't help making a child better, because they call out the best in him to meet their greatness. But they must be read to him, well read, by some one who can read poetry because he or she loves and understands it. Here it all depends upon the teacher. To all her other almost superhuman qualities, we add the requirement that she be a good reader of poetry! You see that, while our theory is simple, its practice involves a number of things, -- some of them as yet impossible.
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