| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Essays & Lectures by Oscar Wilde: claims of the emotional faculties, the claims of mere sentiment and
feeling, that the artist must react. The simple utterance of joy
is not poetry any more than a mere personal cry of pain, and the
real experiences of the artist are always those which do not find
their direct expression but are gathered up and absorbed into some
artistic form which seems, from such real experiences, to be the
farthest removed and the most alien.
'The heart contains passion but the imagination alone contains
poetry,' says Charles Baudelaire. This too was the lesson that
Theophile Gautier, most subtle of all modern critics, most
fascinating of all modern poets, was never tired of teaching -
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Tik-Tok of Oz by L. Frank Baum: Ruggedo has ruined himself by this reckless
defiance of the mighty Tititi-Hoochoo. And in
seeking a job nothing is so effective as a letter
of recommendation."
Chapter Ten
A Terrible Tumble Through a Tube
I suppose that Polychrome, and perhaps Queen Ann
and her Army, might have been able to dispel the
enchantment of Ruggedo's Chief Magician had they
known that danger lay in their pathway; for the
Rainbow's Daughter was a fairy and as Oogaboo is
 Tik-Tok of Oz |