'Pic-nic and Polka'

Julius Charles Hare (1795-1855) was an English theologian, a learned man who amassed a library of more than 12,000 volumes. In 1828, Walter Savage Landor published the third volume of his Imaginary Conversations and included one titled “Archdeacon Hare and Walter Landor.” The dialogue is less combative than others and the mood is friendly. I reread it the other day and enjoyed this exchange: 

Hare: “Regarding the occasional in poetry; is there less merit in taking and treating what is before us, than in seeking and wandering through an open field as we would for mushrooms?”

 

As the name suggests, occasional poetry commemorates a specific event, perhaps a wedding or birth. Landor has a knack for selecting a memorably homely image or word choice. The mushrooms are a pleasant surprise.

Landor: “I stand out a rude rock in the middle of a river, with no exotic or parasitical plant on it, and few others. Eddies and dimples and froth and bubbles pass rapidly by, without shaking me. Here indeed is little room for pic-nic [sic] and polka.”

 

Again, a wonderful surprise. For many readers, the Imaginary Conversations can be formidable. The language is sometimes antiquated and may seem stilted to a contemporary reader. But Landor rewards us with the occasional “pic-nic and polka.” Take this from Landor speaking in the same dialogue:

 

“But prose on certain occasions can bear a great deal of poetry: on the other hand, poetry sinks and swoons under a moderate weight of prose; and neither fan nor burned feather can bring her to herself again.”