 | Reuben and Other Poems |  |
FACT AND FICTION.
Great force is doubtless given to a story
When it is known that every scene and act
Of cruel sorrow or triumphant glory
Was one time living fact.
When it is known that every scene and act
Of cruel sorrow or triumphant glory
Was one time living fact.
And so again, with all its chosen diction,
Invented narrative we hold as cheap:
Not fact, not fact; but is there not in fiction
Reality as deep.
Invented narrative we hold as cheap:
Not fact, not fact; but is there not in fiction
Reality as deep.
Is not the brain-creation of the thinker
As veritable as his daily strife;
The pilgrim just as real as the tinker—
John Bunyan's thought and life.
As veritable as his daily strife;
The pilgrim just as real as the tinker—
John Bunyan's thought and life.
255
Thought is the spirit of the body, action;
Unacted thought is soul without the frame
But no less fact; and they that call it fiction
Are cheated with a name.
Unacted thought is soul without the frame
But no less fact; and they that call it fiction
Are cheated with a name.
| Reuben and Other Poems | |