Survivals-Lewis V. F. Randolph
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What is the opening introduction and purpose of “Survivals” by Lewis V. F. Randolph?
Survivals by Lewis VF Randolph, read for Librivox dot org by Bruce Kechuk. Apology. Once the discovery by a certain revered bank president of a few harmless verses lost the writer a promotion, and well nigh cost him his clerkship and living. A proper young man, exclaimed the president to the cashier, but poetry and banking don't mix. He should enter upon a literary career. Alas what was most longed for could be least afforded. The heart claved to the career, the handicapped youth clung to the clerkship, and That was long ago. Now that one could make shift to afford a little poetry, it is too late for the career. In a recent biography of the late John Mills, banker, reformer, and poet of Lancashire, we are informed that our own Emerson was one among Mills' many friends, and one day hearing Alexander Ireland read some of Mills' poems, yet in manuscript, Emerson asked, Why does he not publish them?
When Ireland repeated this to Mills, the banker remarked remarked, If I published a book of poetry there would be a run on the bank in no time. Perhaps the old bankers were both right, though it is to be hoped that the business world grows kinder and more tolerant as it grows older. The daily grind of Wall Street or of Thread Needle Street does not foster fine thought, nor does it aid in cultivating the imagination, and yet men have been found in responsible positions whose services to mankind were not lessened by a struggle toward poetical ideals. Such ideals the writer has at least cherished without growing ashamed.
How does the early banking anecdote illustrate the conflict between poetry and a clerk’s career?
To his Him also life has in the main worn serious and religious aspects, and he has had some part in the church militant. He confesses that seriousness, even to intensity, is not poetry. Here doubtless he needs and he craves indulgence. Still he trusts that fervor and aspiration are not yet, even at the turn of the century, accounted as alien to the best spirit of modern verse. An overfond mother of blessed memory valued and kept together her boy's poems. When she died, a practical and prudent relative, happening into possession of the pile of papers, marvelled at their inutility, and of them promptly made a holocaust. Just how a certain few of the older collection were saved, and some later ones added, it is
It is not now important to recount. In John Bunyan's poetic allegory there is a quaint figure of an old man with a muckrake, gathering unconsidered trifles. It would be sad to spend much of this probationary life wielding the muckrake. One apology might in this case be that raking these forty compositions out of the remnants of forty years has furnished a brief diversion in a life too much devoted to the care of the descares of this world and the deceitfulness of other people's riches. For the publication of these remnants or survivals, no apology is attempted. End of section This
recording is in the public domain
What does Emerson’s question to Alexander Ireland reveal about publishing poetry in the 19th century?
Survivals by Lewis VF Randolph, read for Librivox dot org. God's universe is one. He is its soul, he vitalizes, guides, informs the whole. Matter exists not as a lifeless thing, but full of sentience and obedience, spring sons, worlds and songbirds to make glad acclaim of unity of life in one grace. Great name in essence, all is spirit, every clod attests its link and loyalty to God. Attraction, gravitation are but words hollow of meaning when the thought affords no just relation to the primal force, no hint of union to the central source. God's universe is spirit, things that seem so real are but shadows. What we deem as stalwart entities, full of mere refractions through a clouded atmosphere. Material things, sight, feeling, touch, and taste attest them momently, and then they
and waste some melt like snowflakes in the vernal sun, by friction, rust, decay are some undone. These are but children of the earth and air, without fixed habitation anywhere. Through them as through electric currents come bright, hopeful messages to souls that roam. Twas a vibration, twas a passing wave, the short-lived medium hasted to its grave. The message stayed, perchance, a promise given, a word of love, a truth, a hope of heaven.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the opening introduction and purpose of “Survivals” by Lewis V. F. Randolph?
0:00–1:56
2
How does the early banking anecdote illustrate the conflict between poetry and a clerk’s career?
1:56–3:40
3
What does Emerson’s question to Alexander Ireland reveal about publishing poetry in the 19th century?
3:40–6:01
4
Why does Randolph argue that seriousness and religious intensity are not true poetry?
6:01–8:03
5
What lesson does the John Bunyan muck‑rake allegory teach about spending one’s life on trivial pursuits?
8:03–11:52
6
How does Randolph describe the spiritual nature of God’s universe and the fleetingness of material things?
11:52–17:55
7
What questions about life, death, and the presence of Christ does Randolph pose in the middle of the work?
17:55–23:15
8
How does Randolph conclude “Survivals” with reflections on peace, war, and the enduring value of truth?
23:15–1:33:52