Nashville daily patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1855-1857, 1856-11-05

now many OF US usdt hdDe hedTiS, nave hioden
away in the caves Of Memory, come simple song Of
the loved, perchance the lost, which we have cued
from the barren heath Of some old newspaper? 1t
is Rousseaus flower to US. How many of US have
ielt the charm of some small social gathering when
the one most loved was present, and sckened at
| the splendOr and brllisncy of a fashionable assem-
blee where that one was nots So in poetry. The
heart may become interested in little wsif
drifting nsmelessly upon the current of newspaper
| literature, when the Music of Chde Harold falls
coldly upon its chords aud IT no beauty in
a"Paradise Regaiped."
| Newspaper poems are, for the most part, effu-
sions. They are ebuIltions not efforts. Yet how
often does it happen that the fadeless aurels oil an
author won by spontaneous GffusiOn, rather
| than an elaborate effort! How many read Cowper's
"Task?"-yct who has not read, aye, and wept ov"
| er his Lines to my Mothers Picture?" How many
thousands are there who know nothing OF Coleridge
/ except lis ''Vale Of ChImOwne," and his Gene
| viewer" Who remembers the long, artistic, and
artificial ESSAYS OF Popes but who has not his hearts
casket stored with gems from MOOTe's delicious
Melodies" Who so popular with the French as
! Beran ger2 and how DO the Germans cherish the
| lyrics of Goethe and Scbillerl VIII the names of
COrDeille and Racine outlive that Of the young
! solder Rouget de LisIe? How many have heard
! of Gray's elegant scholarship, though his "Eegy"
| is cOnned by every school boy throughout the civil
| lized void? Is not the Song OF the Shirt" more
! powerful than the most eloquent charity sermon?
/ Aye! and that beautiful hymn From GreCnland'3
| icy mountains" sung in a missionary meeting will
do more to melt the hearts and open the purses Of
the audience than the most elaborate lecture on the
| "Horrors of Heathenisrn" Which of the writings
! of Hemans have twined her gentle brow with the
brightest aurels? Not her dramas, or her epics,
| hut her songs-those which strike the chords Of
humanity's heart. PROFESSIONALLY the very best
poetry written in America, has been first given to
the world by the newspaper press and been writ
| ten by persons who could only WOO the Muse, in
their occasional reaxations from professional, f.
| nsncia or domestic toll. And in every country
! those articles which strike like the notes of the
Marseiaise upon the popular heart, are almost uni'
versally the productions of men and women who
have turned to literature, only in the intervals OF
more engrossing duties, and more arduOus abors
Snould any one be disposed 10 doubt that news
| paper poery" could ever win Fame, let him turn
for moment to the great majority Of the tards of
! our country who now sit crowned with the "round
of royalty" in Fame's proud temple, but whose
lyrics were first borne to the heart and the home
stead, by the much berated newspaper" Who
reads 1.-THE Ages?"-bnt are not ''The Prairies,"
and ITO Waterfowl" and 1.-The Death Of the
Flowers" like household words in every home?
Where "Eyang,liue" and Hyperion" and the
"Song of Hiawatha," we're never heard the psalm
| of Life" and Footsteps of Angels" have gone
floating like fOwer-seeds into the desert hooks,
there to gerninate and bud, and bloom, until the
SOLITARY place shall be glad for them, and Tt, oice,
| and blossom as the rose" Few who sing the chO-
! rus Sparkling and bright" know the sad story Of
its author and fewer still vino repeat 81 fill this cup
to one made up of oveliness alone" could tell
you of the writer's youth and melancholy history.
! Yet this is Fime--thcir works live after them.
We throw aside the Had to read, and revel in the
! lightweight enthusiasm which sung of a nOber
! Greek than Achilles, Marco Bozzars. Do not the
| sweet strains of amelia" linger ever in our mem
cries, and is not Morris "Woodrnan spare that
| tree" sung and loved wherever the AngIo,Saxon
| tongue is heard!
Do not despise the newspaper poet" He may
send some beautiful truth fitting by you on the
wings of song; some great thought concentrated in
little lyric like the gigantic Genius Of the Ara
| bian tale in the little urn of Solman. He may
! light a consecrated taper and leave it burning on
the way .side shrine, to cheer you in your onward
! pilgrimage. He may take some everyday incident,
coumon as the dark unseemly wire of the chemist
! and so cluster upon it the brilliant and gem like
crystaizatons Of his thought that il shall become
to you and to him the beautiful "SRUer Tree" His
"better moments" may be few and far between,
! yet if he enshriue them for you like dew-drop in
the crystal disdain not to place them in your home
cabinet His works are neither few small
| Quoted by the father at the festive board taught
by the mother to her infants at the FIRE side-sung
| by the maiden at her piano, -declamed by the
stripping in bis first ambitious attempts as en- ora.
tor-who shall say his works without "due
! recompense of reward?"
But remember do not ask you to like news
! paper poetry" You may not be gifted in that
line" If not agreeable, don't try to like It for we
know it cannot be pleasing to some people. When
cas 4 god" queries Carlyle, agreeable TO every
6Ody?"
FoREsr HOME, 1856.