This book is dated 1918 and was published by Charles Scribner’s
Sons, New York. The first paragraph of the preface states: “The following
volume is composed of a number of papers written at various times and already
partially printed; they are now revised and gathered together in the hope that
they may lead the reader, from somewhat different points of approach, to a single
idea. This idea is that religion and poetry are identical in essence, and differ
merely in the way in which they are attached to practical affairs. Poetry is
called religion when it intervenes in life, and religion, when it merely supervenes
upon life, is seen to be nothing but poetry.”
The ten chapters in the book are as follows:
I. Understanding, Imagination, and Mysticism
II. The Homeric Hymns
III. The Dissolution of Paganism
IV. The Poetry of Christian Dogma
V. Platonic Love in Some Italian Poets
VI. The Absence of Religion in Shakespeare
VII. The Poetry of Barbarism
VIII. Emerson
IX. A Religion of Disillusion
X. The Elements and Function of Poetry
The book is in very good condition with a few bumps to the cover and some
slight rubbing to the top and bottom of the spine. There is some foxing to
the end papers. This is a very clean and tight book.
