Page:A history of Hungarian literature.djvu/220

 2o6 HUNGARIAN LITERATURE is found in such perfection in no poetry outside the popular songs. It cannot be acquired ; the more the poet strives after it, the farther does he drift away from it. The songs of the people, on the other hand, are invariably full of it. Those nameless singers composed their songs under the overpowering írnpulse of strong feeling and were írnpelled by no other motive. And if a popular song is not full of life, if it is not simple and genuine, it quickly perishes and fails to win the ear of ali men. Poets by profession achieve the triumph of perfect sincerity and freshness much more rarely than the unknown autb ors of the songs of the people. But Petőfi's verses were very different from the oratorical composi­ tions of his contemporaries. Ali he says is simple, and expressed with fervour and the instinctive sin cerity of a just mind. Deep, strong feelings, put into the simplest possihle words-that is the typical Petőfi poem. Related to his fresh ness is his sincerity. He shows hímself to us as he is. For hím poetry is not a means of enabling hím to assume this character or that, but an opportunity to lay bare his inmost soul. His poetry is an open confession. AU the incidents of his life, the news he hears, and th books he reads, profoundly írnpress his heart and his whole being. It never occurs to him to pander with the truth, and he pours his whole soul into his poems. Other poets reveal thernselves most frequ ently in care­ fuily chosen moods. Not so Petőfi. He pours forth like a torrent ali he thinks and feels and suffers. He telis u s that he has been hugry, and cold and penniless, or that his father struck him, or that he was a strolling player, and that his coat was ragged. Who would have dared to speak like this before him ? The poets would