New-York tribune., 1867-07-29
DDE1. WANTED.

POET WANTED
1t is a question of some pmlosophlcal inter-
est whether poetry, fair both In qualty anu
quantity, can be obtained by advertising lor
it; i. c.. whether you can catch Pegasus ioI
special use by shaking at him sieve WIN
corn (or CASH in it. The Antletam Natlonai
Cemetery is shortly to be DEDICATED, ana the
Committee of Arrangements very much desire
Poem to be recited on the occasional Poem
of two hundred lines, be the same more or
less Mr. Snodgrass, Chairman, has there-
fore issued a circular to that highly
numerous and respectable body, the PoetS
"of the United States" and he has sent
copy to us, although we protest III
the beginning, that we are not fOet'
We are willing nevertheless, to aid the Com
mittee to the best of our ability; and we do
here and now announce its pOetlcal desires
without charge, stating as we are asked 10 uo'
that the happy author of the successful poem
will Ito quote the circular) be, IN the
" "strictest sense of the word, the guest OF the
Board of Trustees, and therefore be at no
"expense whatever for transportation to and
" from the dedication or otherwise" Those
who write for money may not think this
very encouraging offer; but great many good
singers in ancient times, quite the p0etlcal
equals of most modern performers, were eX-
trcmely glad to write and to recite for their
board and lodging; and as for transportation,
they were not transported at ALL but went gen
orally upon foot chanting of battles and assisting
at the funeral games in the most Obliging and
gratutOus manner. The poets OF America, we
hope, are quite as little mercenary. There are
a great many of them, az the Committee VIII
find out before the dOg-days are over, ana
some of them are quito able to pay their rail-
way fares and their tavern bills. Those who are
not, may be gratilied to shear Of the generous
intentions of the Antietam Committee, and
gladly proceed Gas the circular expresses lt)
to WELD their pens" There is also faint
promise of publishing volume of the rejected
poets and the chance of seeing themselves III
print. for which some men have perfect pas
sion, is thus added to the chance OF being " IN
" the strictcst SENSE the guests OF the Board
" of Trustees When we add that the Char
mans address is No. 1Si East Broadway, we
believe that we have done all the advertising
which can reasonably be required of us. We
have not been asked to sit upon the poems
in Judgment, and we hope we shall not be.
We really couldn't do it.
We sincerely desire that the Committee may
procure n proper poem for a most interesting
and touching occasion; but we must say that
the expedient which they have adopted has
been tried again and again, and never, to our
knowledge, with much success. OF course,
there is never any difficulty in securing any
given quantity of verses, from five bushels of
them TO fifty, and all possessed OF certain
degree of merit. There are thousands of men
and women of boys and girls, in the United
States, who write what may be called re-
spcctable poetry, but which is mostly a rem-
niscence of what has pleased them in others.
II is of questionable expediency to stimulate
this writing and rhyming faculty, this finger
counting, these mockng-bird performances,
which, if not productive of great waste of time
lead often to bitter disappointment and sickly
sense of present neglect and injury. II poem Is
wanted for public occasion, to be said or TO be
sung the best course, we think, would be to
20 directly 10 some man or woman of estab-
lishcd name and fame, and TO ask for 1t either
rs a favor or rs a matter of business. This Is
the conscientious course TO be pursued upon
both sides, and the only way TO secure sohd
and honest and enduring work The other
method only produces mischief, brings dlsap-
pointment, creates jcalouses, and gives rise to
suspicious of collision which, we are sorry to
say, are sometimes not unreasonable. If the
orator upon a public day is to be carefully
selected, why not the poet Why should there
not be a competition of eloquent prose as well
as of eloquent verse; Is il because verses are
so much harder to write } All, that Is the
great mistake. Verses (Of a certain kind) are
not hard to write at all. Schoolgirls, college
students, clerks, young physicians, chamber
maids-cycrybody- dy-wIiteS them, and often toll
erably well. Verse making is like whistng-
an accomplishment which almost anybody can
acquire, and which, when acquired, it is just rs
well for almost anybody To forget rs soon as
possible Most deyouty desiring this consum-
nation, we object to advertising for poetry
and thus stimulating production already too
large, encouraging dreams which can never be
realized, and leading away from the honest
regions of prose many well-meaning persons
who have mistaken the nature of poetical
fame, and who have but faint ideas of the laws
of poetcal composition.
-----
A Eronchman has hppn fOuud brave enough