Magical Poetry

It is healthy for one’s sense of noble prose to quote the great words of a Thoreau, a Lincoln, a Plato-yet for guidance in living, those words frequently boil down to nothing more novel than “Be decent and generous, and the world and you will be happier.” But you cannot be decent, you certainly cannot be generous to other people in their way, unless you have a mature imagination. And neither the sagest advice nor the whole cyclopedia of facts will cultivate that imagination as will these lines of poetry which are pure magic:

“A rose-red city, half as old as time.”－JOHN WILLIAM BURGON. “Petra”

“…delight of battle with my peers
Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy.”－TENNYSON, “ULYSSES”

“Charm’d magic casements, opening on the foam
of perilous sea, in faery lands forlorn.”－KEATS, “ODE TO A NIGHTNGALE”

“A savage place！ as holy and enchanted
As e’er beneath a waning moon was haunted
By woman wailing for her demon lover！”－COLERIDGE, “KUBLA KAHN”

Lines like these can never be too familiar！ If you read them often enough to comprehend them, they are enchantments which lead on your imagination so that it perceives not only your own street, but all the streets and valleys and oceans in the world. They are keys that open the minds of all men－when you have learned how to turn them. It does not vastly matter whether you “know what they mean.” Like music, they mean something beyond words and sense － something emotional and holy － and in the atomic age we need such holiness as well as the shrewdness of Franklin, the courage of Jefferson.




有情世界
假如我們能常常讀些名家的散文，引用一些梭羅、林肯或柏拉圖的話，作生活上的指導，是很有益的。可是這些著作，往往引出一個很陳腐的結論：「要做一個高上和仁慈的人，這樣你便快樂些，也使這世界上的人更加快樂些。」可是，除非你有相當的想像力，否則你心目中認為高尚和仁慈的行為，就不會合乎他人的理想。

這裡有幾行詩句所表現的魔力，可以培養我們的想像力，那是格言或百科全書所無法教你的：

一. 如果時間的衡量從什麼時候開始，那麼，這玫瑰紅色小城的歷史，便有一半那麼久遠。－威廉布根「潘杜拉」

二. 狂風呼嘯在遠方特洛伊沙場上，我與夥伴們以征戰為樂！－但尼遜「奧德賽」


三. 這是一片荒漠的仙境，在那浪濤洶湧的海上，有誘人的魔窗開啟著。－濟慈「夜鶯頌」

四. 這是何等蠻荒的地方啊！聖潔而迷人，在這朦朧的月色下，彷彿常常有婦人在這裡為負心的情郎而慟哭。－柯立芝「忽必烈汗」

也許你不常讀這樣的詩句，假使你常讀，你便會有較深刻的了解。這些詩句都很迷人，他們引你走入想像。具備了這樣的想像力，你便不止看到自己家園中的一切，還能看到世上每一個角落，善於應用這種想像力，可以開拓人類的胸懷。有時，你不一定需要對描寫的事物了解得非常清楚，正如音樂一樣，它訴之於言詞和感覺以外的一種特殊的情緒和靈性。在這樣的原子核子時代，除了需要富蘭克林的精明能幹和傑弗遜的勇氣以外，我們也需要這樣的靈性。