Daily national Democrat., 1859-03-01
American Poetry.

EdWln IL. CampDel delivered, says the >.
F. Bulletin, the fourth lecture of the winter
course before the Mercantile Library Asso-
citation, at Musical Hall, Thursday evening.
His subject was American Poetry; but he ra-
ther recited pieces than lectured upon poetry.
He commenced with Edgar A. Poe's defni-
ton of poetry, and then passed rapidly to the
most widely-known of American poets Civ
ing verse or small poem Of each. lie reci
ted Dana's Immortality portion of Bryants
"Thanatopsis," hymn by Poe, Holmes on a
punch bowl" and his Health to Woman, !"
portions of Halleck's "Marco Bazzaris and
Fanny" stanzas of brakes Culprit Fay and
American Flag, Longfellows Warden of the
Cinque Ports and The Phantom Bugler.
Prentices Remorseless Time, Wallaces Jeru-
salem, Sigourneys De,th of an Infant, Wei
by's Rainbow, and closed with the tilt of cpl
grams between Miss Gould and Caleb Cush-
ing We have room but for one extract from
the lecture on the spread of American
poetry:
My province here is to give q brief, curso-
ry, and doubtless imperfect glance at Ameri-
can Poetry and those writer's of verse in our
land who have combined to elevate its char.
acter and mainly contributed. to the elements
that make up its component parts. A friend
AN educated and in all other respects a
highly intelligent man-remarked to me, a
few evenings since: 81 see that you are to de-
liver lecture upon American poetry, before
the Mercantile Library Asso .iaiiou. Could
| spare the time, | should certainly 20 and
hear you, for have never vet known that
there acere any American poets" As he is
some years my senior | could but commiser-
ate his benighted ignorance, and set him
down rs an out-and ont Know Nothing. No
American poets Why, Hallecks Marco
Bozzaris chanted by descendants and coun-
trymen of that Puiote bard who fought like
brave men, long and well" in the language
and in the land of the Odyssey and the Had.
Bryant is read in the tongue that renders
musical the verse of Camoens and Lope de
Vega. The author of Home, sweet Home,
has heard his own world-renowned melody
und,r the shadow of his Consulate on the
coast of Barbary. How melancholy was it,
too, that one who sang so sweetly of its holy
ties and endearments should yield up his
spirit IAN exile from home," far away from
friends or kindred, in foreign land
To descend in the scale, Howadi Curtis
had his swarthy boatmen on the Nile beg
pathetically, and in the most heart-rending
tones to be carried back to Ole Virginnv, .
rs soon as the nature of circumstances would
admit and while melting under the rays of
an Eastern sun, Bayard Taylor was melted to
tears upon hearing the woes of "poor Lucy
Ntal' recited in doleful accents by his tur-
Ganed palanquin bearers on the sacred banks
of the Ganges and, if the reports of travellers
are to be credited, there are in the vicinity
of the Black Hole of Calcutta, if the public
voice is to be taken as the criterion, few more
important personages than one "Danel Tuck
cr, whose misfortune was that he was behind
time, and couldn't come to tea. No Ameri-
can poet? Why, every quarter Of the globe,
'all the world and the rest of mankind in
dignantly refute the SANDER But we have
no great epic-no ponderous poem-no nigh
ty literary engine of not less than forty jack
ass power. For one | can say that am not
sorry. With the exception of the "Colum-
bad and perhaps "a few more Of the same
sort now only served up in broken doses, af
ter the style of the tragmentary PARTICLES of
fossil remains, we have had no very volumi-
nous rhymes, no very lengthy poets, unless
indeed Prof Longfellow is to be classified un
der hat head.
believe with Mr. Poe, that to keep up an
unHagging interest, and to sustain true
poetic feeling, poem should be short, and
the sentiment compressed into "a narrow com
pass. Even if our country is aulenableto the
charge of having produced no great poet
mean great so far as literary dUoirdNpoiS is
the standard, our native writers of verse
when weighed in the true balance are not
found wanting. Perhaps no country has
possessed so numerous a class of poets, the
majority of whom have written so little, vet
written that little 81 well In other lands,
literature is distinct profession. In ours, it
is merely respite and recreation from other
pursuits. An English writer expresses his
surprise that upon calling upon one of the
poets of Emerica, doubtless Chas Sprague,)
he found him in the cashiers room Of one of
the Boston banks discounting notes; and up
on going TO present letter of introduction to
humorous writer extensively known and
admired ahroad-he dug him up in cellar
in one OF the back streets of New York put
ting up pickles! The best things Of Bryant,
Leggett, Willis, Morris, and host of others.
were written by way of relaxation from the
ineXorable drudgery of newspaperdcm. Hal
leck composed Fanny" at leisure intervals
after the performance of ten hours n days
clerk drudgery, and "Marco Bozzars" while
calculating interest as the book keeper of
John Jacob Astor.
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