New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1853-12-16
AMERICA IND SHAKESPEARE.

We observe that Dr. Holmes, the lecturer and
poet, of Boston, has lately said that we have
yet had no great bard, of our own, and that
g the great American poet is still to come"
Why, how is this, Doctor J Is not this the
most poetical land under the sun : Where are
all those tuneful people who have so long been
urged upon us, as making up the separate glory
of g an American literature!" For our part,
we have always supposed great authors to be ns
thick as hops or as hail all over our soil, and
poets, especially, inasmuch as we have long
since satisfied ourself that, in this very literary
age, there were thousands upon thousands who
write amazing poetry and cannot for their lives,
indite decent sentence of prose.
But, then, where is New England, in particu-
lar! We have been accustomed to look on it
as one universal Parnassus Does any body
ever condesoend to write prose, there We had
sreally supposed not.
Consider, DR.. Holmes, what a depraved here
~ this is, that You are uttering in the face OF
all the Mutual Admiration Societies of New
England What will their great central organ,
the North American Review, say to you' And
dare you, besides, fly into the face of that
matchless collection of an unparalleled critic
DR. Rufus W. Griswold and his bookful of bards
No great poets! Why, sir, did any one even
hear of a small American poet Never, sir
never 1t is prodigy that has never yet oo.
Cured. no more than Virginia family who
were less than L. F. v. If it ever should
nobody win tell of it.
But suppose, oh doctor he who (you say
has not yet come-the great poet-were, at last
to arrive, sure enough How should we know
him from all the rest that have, in perpetual
succession, been heralded to us as the great
poet, by every tin-trumpet that now blows Re-
nown about
And why, sweet doctor must poet come
when there's no more poetry Do you not know
that lands over-cropped with particular thing
grow tas the farmers say sick and refuse tt
grow it any longer Or why, again, do you
look for an American poet, when there's nc
lonner an English one What needs there, te
prove that fact, but the late cutlery of wonder
over Alexander Smith
= DR.. Holmes! we must ask you several serious
questions, painful as it is to ask what can't be
answered. If you had great American poet
what would you do for him that you have moi
done for every mewing metre-monger, from thu
most dismal of the Purtans down to the mos
doleful of the sentimentalists' Would you no
sethim to sing baby-verse to you' What is h,
to DO an american poet for Is he to versify
the Constitution or the Declaration Of Indepen
dence' Shall heresound Congressional speeches
tba nria af fl.a =.
on still holder wing, celebrate the honors o
Manifest Destiny and turn Democracy, which
never was reason, into rhyme at least! Why
but for such purposes, would you have him III
american poet Why, unless that you wan
him not to write English Is he to be American
by dint of American doctrine or thought or dia
leet or style' Not, We hope, unless all thes
are to be a clear improvement upon all our exis
ting literature. If they are, why, then, il
Heavens name! let the new poet come, an,
come quickly, bringing large school along
with him. Nobody will be gladder to see hin
beat Milton and Shakespeare hollow than our
self.
But allow US, until this rather uncertain
poetic advent, promised US only by falls
prophets, shall come, to insist that the old lite
nature Of our language is not only very good
but, according to any signs we have yet giver
great deal better than any We shall get i
place of it. Raleigh and Bacon, in pros,
Shakespeare and Milton in verse, are quite
good writers as we deserve. As to -dmerica'
we don't know it, in Letters nor in Art but, Q
the contrary, hold all that is noble in BIRTHS
wit or valor or patriotism or virtue or sense
be just as much ours as hers. And, apropos
all this, we take pleasure in laying before gu