The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1856-11-20
" ASHINGTON, d. G..
For the National Era.
CANT AGAI IN.
BY GAIL HAMILTON.
No. l..
BY GAIL HAMILTON.

.I3,ess to a class of young ladies just closing
heir school life. Those who have ever listen
a 70 such addresses need not be informed OF
.,or character. The reverend mentors, as if
I,pnted by phantoms of Lucy Stone and An
annette Brown, delight to enlarge upon the ap-
,-oprate duties of womsn-to show that the
me glory and dignity of feminine life lie IN the
v6-tub or the frying-pan, or at least in the
;akned chamber where the gourmand is suf-
~ from the effects of such belief. They
,,.,re us that a woman never appears so lovely
=, when washing her children's faces or hand
ing her husbands slippers. They solemnly
yarn the innocent damsels of such breakers as
the law, the gospel, and the pill-box, and wax
moose over visions of men by the cradle and
vouen on the woolsack. But the clergyman
>, whom | refer was not fossil remain. He
vss an energetic young man. He had appa-
r,tly brushed from his eyes the cobwebs that
obscure the light of heaven to so many, and
nothing seemed more probable than that he
would speak sincerely and earnestly and truth
fuuy. Did he? Well, perhaps be did. He
Knows great deal more than /. He has trav-
sned far and written much, and is very en-
phstically somebody. These girls were leaving
school, about to take upon themselves the re-
sponsibility of their characters; and he told
item what they might do, and what they might
not He allowed them to teach or to live at
bome to embroider and read and draw and
paint and sing, and make oak-lesf pictures and
cone pictureframes, and gather MOSES and
grasses and shells. and do good generally and
particularly; I" but here his voice faltered,
bis eyes grew heavy with unshed tears" and
he struck an attitude of the most beseeching
pose" but, young ladies, don't write poetry,
ualess the impulse to do it is so strong that re-
sis,ance would be fatal" After this astonish-
Ing outbreak, he subsidized, evidently impressed
with the idea that he had delivered a very witty
saving. Nonsense and very poor, stale, and
tnie nonsense, too. When it was first uttered,
there might have been degree of sprightliness
in IT, but it has caught the foul breath from
50 many lips, that it has quite lost its original
favor. IL is based, however, on an opinion as
alse and ill-founded as it is widespread-an
opinion caught up and passed around, without
any examination into its real nature or its
claims to our belief-an opinion redolent with
cant.
To show that such is the fact, let ME ask you,
reverend sir, if this is rule that obtains in
any other profession, pursuit. or enjoyment in
hiey Would you have your wife refrain from
sewing the button upon your waistband till the
desire TO do it becomes 30 strong that resist
ance would be fatal? Do you not write your
sermons till moved by the instinct of selfpres-
ovation? Men talk as if it were sin to write
poetry, unless it be of the very highest order.
Pvt are All preachers Panls ALL soldiers b.
Rapsres all actors Garricks ?-all statesmen
Wsshingtons? Shall woman not dance I'M
less she have the heels of an Ellsler, or sing
without the voice of Lind, or paint without
the pencil of an Angelo? Would it even be
better so? Is there not many man whose
pulses thrill to the notes of " Yankee Doodle"
who would sit calm and impsssive under Seas
ia Diva"
A certain reviewer Of l.. +. L. said that her
poems had done positive hsrm-they had weak
ened the English language and perverted the
English taste; that it would really be better
II she had never taken pen in her hand and
then he pronounced an anathema on the whole
race Of feminine rhymers. Nonsense, again
Is the English language more important than
the English heart? Is the marble statue which
the sklliul artist csrves with his chsel of greater
moment than the living soul which he is to
shape, /" not for an age, but for all time"-ay,
and for all eternity? All over the green fields
Of England, and under the blue skies of Amer
lea, hearts have throbbed and eyes have filled
With tears at the simple songs of l.. K. l.. Of
What use is it, then, for critic to rise up in
ms selfeOnceit and say, "This is not poetry
this is all sentiment; it ought not to be writ
ten; it is not Miltonian nor Spenserian nor
hTgilian nor Dantesque; 1t is not written ac-
eording to the rules of high art" A fig for
your high art / tell you, if love her poetry,
will resd it. "Oh, but you are only sim
pIetOn-igaorant and uncultivatedl 1t may be
80, but | am myself, am i not? And one thing
! Ike and another thing do not like. have
d passion for sweet potatoes, but eschew pork
STEAK You have no relish for sweet potatoes,
but you defy pork. AT your own table you
may crafty your own taste pork undique,
nndlque sausages but when you come to my
pine board, and bid me cast aside my simple
root, because it indicates or produces q vitiated
appetite, and try to thrust your abominabie
flesh dOwn my reluctant throat, why, / say,
"Avaunt, there Look you to your sausages,
but don't NEEDLE with my sweet potatoes |"
You may tell a mother that her child's fea-
lures are not Grecian; that his skin is Drowned
aud freckled by sun and wind; that his hair is
coarse and his form ungainly-but Will she
clasp him to her bosom with any the less ten
derness, or will she thenceforth cease to whis-
per his name in her morning and evening
prayer? The object of poetry is, to please
and whom? Not the elegant, the cultivated,
the delicately nurtured, mereiys but the poor,
The homely, the ignorant, as well. 1t is to pol
ish the rough, to refine the vulgar, to ennoble
The com monplace, to scatter pearls before those
who find the path to Heaven among the untrod
den ways Of life. Go to now, fools, and slow
OF heart to believed There must be vessels OF
honor and vessels of dishonor. All stars have
not the same glory; but one star differeth from
another star in glory. Homer wrote the Had
and Floriila Flowerdale writes Sonnet TO a
Dew-drop; and though the soul of the one be
ghl clipper, they are both full There is but
one Chinese wall, but there are many stone
fences and they are entirely effectual in keep
ing the COWS from the meadow and the sheer
from the corn" There are but few St. Paufi
cathedrals, but white spires peer heavenwarc
from every valley and wayworn feet tread
r 'HAehci "oiu, eOhio oAS &c
ifeshed aud gladdened. The nightingale is the
sweetest of all birds, but we could i'll spare from
our woodland chorus the notes of the robin
the hum of the bee.
Many woman with no pretensions to &c
aus walks her daily round, fulflls all wifely
oeues, seems contented and happy in her home
oi peace and plenty, who is nevertheless some
umes lonely and dispirited. There are glim
,nerings of somewhat higher, shadowy remem
FRANCES of girlish aspirations and heroic pur
poses; sad and eager questioning thu
a., al TO the heart that vouchssfes no reply
ms feeling can find no vent like poetry OF
music. If from the keys of her piano or the
Strings of her harp her troubled spirit, Saul-like
snaii lind rest, it is we'll; but if she have NJ
sPeil to evoke the genius of song, Why shoult
you forbid her to give expression by rhythInit
cadence to the feeling which, unvoiced, will b.
crushed back into the soil whance II sDrany