The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-12-13

Ny Dear Cress-Feeling 10 peculiarly ami
able mood / desire word with you.
have just finished reading all the poetry in GER
tain weekly newspaper published---I won't say
where, for fear of making enemies. Enemies are
dissgreeable and hate them-all amiable people
do-therefore get along with as few as possible.
Mr. Editor, what is the matter Has the inven-
ton Of printing crszed onehslf the worlds popu-
lation and made fools of the other half or Is it the
other way! BY what law Of physics are we to
account for the amount of poetry written now-a-
days? (0f course you understand that call it
poetry for politeness sske.) This being under.
stood, let's go on.
If my ideas on the subject are worth counter
felt copper cent, in mutlated paper carren cy,
then the thing stands just this way.
II is as utterly impossible to write poetry with
out being poet as il would be to chop a pigs
tail of with half pound OF soft soap or for
dumb man to talk SaDskrit by reason Of having
had his house built by a High. Dutch carpenter;
or for poor man TO get credit on the strength of
long nose; or for anything else to happen
which s equally absurd and contrary TO Scripture.
lt is even more SO, for all these might occur
through sn earthquake, comet. red headed
steamboat or some other extraordinary accident
bur the poet business belongs TO that small aud
select class of accidents which never happen
even accidentally.
don't pretend to assign cause for It, but the
great mass Of those contributing what nav be
called newspaper poetry seem TO consist of per-
sons whose vocation TO the art is chiefly taste
for jmgle--a taste, by the by, not invariably
grsufed in the attempts prompted by it. Their
qualihcati ions are for the most part embraced in
an inaccurate ear and family GOODNESS arising
ffom ill-ireatmeDt OF their mother-tOngue.
Newspaper poetry like romance Ia fearfally aud
wonderfully made aud the greatest part OF the
woIcer Is why it was made at all. Che people
who write it pct questions TO Nature which are
entirely out OF the poor danes power to answer.
and then aTnmble las they think melodiousy
because they fail Of reply. don't wish to be
lard on them, bat why do they do il?
They seek the reason of their beIBg-incompre-
hen,ibe iIdsed-in nes which, like Their own
simplicity. are unmessOred and undesirable.
They mistake pethOs to be a bOltomless alb gss o {
nonsense ard intO il they tumble, as naturally as
mud turtles of log.
They essay TO scale the cliffs of sublimity aud
lose their footing before they ger half way slip.
ping down in the most undignifed manner-a man
ner IN fact which would be 70 the last degree
lsughable except that il is so fatty foolish.
The tragic is another weak point: blighted
hopes. black past. and blacker future. The
difficulty. as the Iishman said of the hot potato
is to get hold If the right end of the devilish
thing. As q rule however, for them, the devilish
thing has DO right end. They "saw the
air thus" and tear passion TO the very
smallest Of letters. Even then they don't split
OF these poetzers are like their heads essentially
soft They bewGil woes which never had existence
in style that would render ludicr0us the tortures
OF LGOoOOn and over make-beleve sorrows sob
their readers 10 sleep. In a word they are weak.
and. as Satan remarked to his friend, " to be weak
he miserable - only in this case the doing il all
their own and the suffering all ours.
These misguided ones, too, occupy great deal
OF space In the journals which might otherwise
be filed with more interesting articles on turnips
or improved pigs. Indeed anything would be
better that had firmer foundation than the froth
and syllsbub brains OF human beings who would do
something more useful. | suppose, II they could
aud doubtless could II they had sense enough.
After ell, the positive evil they do is not great
and be would be Don Quxote IN truth who should
rUD q tilt at the nultitudinous array whose arms
revolve as increasingly. and whose lives, If not as
profitable in their results. are as entirely "a
dem'd hoTrid grind, as the good knight found in
his siry opponents. Ii Is merely in its weakening
effects that really object TO this spoon yictusis
Of literature and for that matter, were censor.
I'm afraid the literary portion of most newspapers
would be sadly doeked. But. then, Pm not, 20 II
don't matter. I'm an old fogy, perhaps, and be.
bind the age. ! believe III 20 read Solomon's
Song TO put me in spirits. a. u
lli IL EVERY yours, eli sfv uorf
JxSrr. %, II, 'es.