New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1858-02-27
NEW PUBLICATIONS.

THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. March. Philips Sampson Co.
The fifth number Of this magazine, now issued, bril
lisntly fulfs the promise Of it's commencement. 1t
presents refreshing table of contents and its mechan-
zeal execution is no less remarkable for its excellent
taste than it's almost immaculate correctness. The
Autocrat of the Breakfast Table scatters his pearls
and diamonds with bis usual lavish hand, without
showing the faintest sign of mpovershment from his
prouse hberality. We snatch two or three of them
from their setting though at the risk Of damaging them
by the process.
HOW POETRY GETS WRITTEN.
A Lyric concepton-my friend, the Poet, sad-hits
me like bullet Id the forehead. have often had the
blood drop from my cheeks when It struck, ana iet
that turned as white es death. Then comes creep
ing ss of centipedes running down the splne-then q
gasp and a great jump of the heart-then sudden
aush and beating in the vessels of the head-then
long sigh-and the poem is written: ..
1t ia an impromptu, suppose, then, II you wrlte IL
No, said he, far from It. said written, but did
not cay copied. Every such poem has soul and a
body and it is the body Of it or the copy thst men
an instant in the poets soul. 1t comes to him a
thought tangled in the meshes of few sweet words,
words that have loved each other from the cradle OF
Whether il will ever fully embody itself in bridal
train of dozen stanZss not is uncertain; but It
exists potentially from the instant that the poet turns
pale with it. II 10 enough to stun and
TO have hot thought come crashing into his brain,
and plopghing up those parallel rts where the wagon
trains of common ideas were jogging along IN their
regular sequences of association. NO wonder tn"
ancients made the poetcai impulse whohy efternai'
HOW POETRY MUST BE KEPT.
Nav tell You poem must be kept and used, ike
a auIn, or violin. poem is just as porous
az the meerschaum the more porous 1t Is the better
neon to cay that genuine poem Is capable OF eD-
sorbpp an indefinite OF the essence OF our own
humanty-its tenderness its heroism, its regrets, ITS
asprstions-soss to be gradually stained through with
divine secondary color derived from ourselves 90
you see must take time to bring the sentiment OF
poem into harmony with nature, by staining our
selves through every thought and image our being
penetrate.
why, who can expect anything more from that than
from tbe music of a violin fresh from the maker 8
hands, Now you know very well that there are no
less than fifty eight different pieces in violin these
pieces are strangers to each other and taxes Gen.
tury more or less, to make them thoroughly &c
ousnted At last they learn TO viorste IN harmony,
and the instrument becomes an organic whole, a. 1t
were a great seed. capsule that had grown from gar.
den. bed in Cremons or elsewhere. Besides, the wood
Juicy and full Of sap for fifty years or 80 but at the
end of fifty hundred more gets toieraDy ary ahu
comparatively resonant. ,
Don't you SEQ that all this is just as true OF poem
Counting each word as piece, there are more pieces
in an average copy Of verses than in viohn. Inc
poet has forced all these words together ana fastened
the poem be repeated aloud and murmured over In
the mind mu1ed whisper often enough and at length
the parts become knit together in sush absolute soil
darby that you could not change syllsoIe without
the whole worlds crying out against you for meddllng
with the harmonious fabric. Observe, too, how the
drying process takes place in the stuff OF poem just
as in that OF violin.
WHAT'S IN NAME!
You see, my friends, what immense conclusions,
uaA rod
NAV be reached by means of very insignificant prem,
res This is eminently true of manners and forms Oh
speech; movement or phrase often tells you all you
want to know about person. Ihus " how your
health :" commonly pronounced ha@ah)-lnsteaa OF,
How do YOU do or, How are you! Or calling your
little dark entry hall" and your old rickety one
horse wagon 'kendge." Or telling person who
has been trying to please you that he has gwen you
pretty good satisfaction Or saying that you re-
member Of" such thing or that you have been
"stoppin'" at Deacon Somebody sand other such eI
pressons One of my friends had little marble stat
uette of Cupid in the parlor of his country house
bow arrows, wings and all complete. visitor, IN
digenous the region looking pensvely at the figure
asked the lady of the house f that was ststoo of
her deceased infant 7" What a delicious, though
somewhat volumnous biography, social, educational
and aesthetic, in that brief question
SQUIRTING.
Did you never in walking in the fields, come across
fat stone which had lam, nobody knows how long,
lust where you found it, with the grass forming little
hedge as il WERE all round it, close to its edges-and
have YOU not in obedience TO kind OF feeling that
told you it had been lying there long enough insnu-
ated your STICK or your foot your nngers under us
edge and turned it over as housewife turns cake,
when she says to herself It's done brown enough by
this time :" What an odd revelation, and what an
unforeseen and unpleasant surprise 10 small conmu'
nity the very existence OF which you had not sus'
peced until the sudden dismay and scattering among
It's members produced by your turning the Old stone
ever Blades of grass fattensd down, coorless mat
ted together as if they had been beached and noned
bdeous crawling creatures some OF them coieoPterous
or ornysheled-turtle-bugs one wants TO call them
some Of them softer, but cunnngly spread out and
compressed like Leplne watches; Mature never iose'
crack or a crevice, mind you or joint IN tavern
bedstead but she always has one OF her hst-pat.ern
live tmekeepers to slide into il black glossy crck-
cts, with their long hlsments sticking out Ike the
whips of four-horse stagecoaches motonless, slug
Ike creatures lary9 perhaps more horrible IN their
PUPPY stiffness than even in the Internal wngge OF
maturity! But no sooner is the stone turned and the
Wholesome hight Of day let upon this compressed aud
blinded community of creeping things than al OF them
enjoy the luxury Of legs-aud some of them have q
good many-rnsh round wildly, butting each other and
everything in their way, and end in general stsm-
pede for underground retreats from the region poisoned
BY sunshine. Ntxt gear you will find the grsss grow.
ing tall and green where the stone Law; the ground.
bird builds her nest where the beetle had hs hole the
dandehon and the but,ercup growing there, and
the broad fans Of insect-angels open and shnt
their golden disks as the rhythmic waves of bh.s,ul
con pusae through their glorifed being.
The young fellow whom they call John saw e.
70 saw in his very familiar way-at which do not
cboosk 10 take ofense but which sometimes think il
necessary to repress-thst L was coming It rather
strong on The butterflies.
No replied; there is meaning IN each OF those
imsges-tbe butterfly a. well as the others. The stone
IL ancient error The grass is human rsture borne
down and bleacbed Of all is color by Il. Tns shapes
that are found beneath are the crafty beings that
thrive in darkness, and the weaker organisms kept
soever puts the stat Of truth 20 the od yng incubus,
no n alter whether he do j. with serious isee OF