No doubt it has sometimes trusted too absolutely to
discipline, and has given us too much of the foot-rule and the tuning-
fork. But one discipline, at least, poetry cannot afford to neglect--the
discipline of facts and life. The poetry that can face this ordeal and
survive it is rare. Some poets are tempted to avoid the experience and
save the dream. Others, who were poets in their youth, undergo the
experience and are beaten by it. But the poetry which can bear all naked
truth and still keep its singing voice is the only immortal poetry.
Footnotes:
{78} For some of the facts in this account of Ossian I am indebted to
Mr. J. S. Smart's fascinating book, _James Macpherson_, _an Episode in
Literature_ (David Nutt, 1905).
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