New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-12-16

Still pumping phrases for the ineha0e,
Though all the valves of memory gasp ana t wneexe
Words that have drawn transcenGent meanings up
From the best passion OF all DygOne Time, -
STEPPED through with tears OF triumph and remOrse,
Sweet with all saiuthOOd ceansed IN martyrhres,
Can they so cOnsecrate and so inspired,
BY repetition wane TO veXing wind
Alas! we cannot draw habltual breath
In the thin OF LIES supTemer nights,
We cannot make each meal a sacrament,
Nor with our tailOrs be immortal SOULS,
We men, too conscious OF earth comedy,
Who two sides, with our posed selves DEBATE
Aud only great days can he sublme!
let us be tbankinl When as "a 40 mere. mere
And seeing where God has been, trust in Him"
Tuning now from the past to the future the poet
beholds the advent
"Of Earth's anarchc children latest born,
Democracy, a Titan who hath learned
To laugh at JOves Oldlas4lOned thuhderboS'-
And at the touch of whose " solvents mercileSs,"
THE calm Oympan hight
OF ancient order feels It's bases yield.
And pale gods glance for help to gods as pale
This Western giant coarse,
scorning rehnements which he lacks himself,
Loves not nor heeds the ancestral hierarchies,
Each rank dependent on the next above
In orderly graduation fixed as fate.
King by mere manhood, nor allowing aucht
or holIer JUNCTION than the sweat OF toll;
How make him reverent Of a King OF kngsi
or Judge selt-made, executor Of laws
By nim not first discussed ana voted ont
Doubtless his church will be no hospital
For superannuate forms and muuiping shams,
No paTor where men issue policies
OF ic-assurance on the Eternal Mind
Nor ms rell giOn but an ambulance
To fetch lfe's wounded and mallngerers In,
Scorned by the strong; yet he unconscious heir
TO the influence sweet Of Athens and Of Rome,
And old Judea's GIFT of secret fire.,
Spite Of himself shall surely learn 10 know
And worship some ideal OF himself
Some divine thing, argehearted, Orothery.
Not nice in trifes soft creditor,
Pleased with his world and hating only cant
And, If his Church be doubtful, it IL sure
That. in a world, made for whatever else,
Not made for mere enjoyment, In world
OF toll but hafrequed, or, at best,
Paid IN some futile currency OF pIeath'
And consolation laggard, whatsOe'er
The form Of building OF the creed protested.
The Cross, bold type OF shame 10 homage turned,
OF an unfinished life that sways the world,
Shall tower as sovereign emblem over all
In attempting as we have done to condense the
argument of poem which was already so compact
and erse of expression that the loss of every word
involved the loss of a thought. we have done it an
Injustice which the reader will easily detect and
repair when he takes it up as a whole All those
passages in which Mr.. Lowell celebrates his coming
manor coming mankind-refec: his most charac-
teristic moods and sngularly true to his many
sided genius in their varying irony and earnestness
their grotesqucness and beauty their intellectual
acuteness and cordial tenderness, and in a certain
robust enjoyment of the dismay of the feeblehearted
and weak minded at the promise or threat, of the
future. In artistic spirit the poem IS like the gothic
structure that suggested il, and is not only very
grand and noble in its proportions, but is richly and
exquistey wrought. 1t is full too of subtle anao-
gies of which 1t hardly seems possible that poet him
self could have been conscious till the whole was
done. Here, for example, is praise of gothic art,
which is not only very beautiful as poetry and fine
as thought, but which alphabetically unites the
aesthetic and the spiritual motives Of the poem, and
in many respects might stand for the best expression
of its own character and significance:
The Grecian gluts me with us perfectness,
Uuans werablc as Euclid selfcOnained,
The one thing finished in TINS hasty world,
Forever finished. though the barbarous pit,
A. If a miracle could be cncored.
But ali. this other this that never ends.
still climbing, Turing fancy still 10 climb.
A. fun OF morals halfdivined as life,
Graceful grotesque with ever new surprise
OF hazardous caprices sure 10 please,
Heavy IS nightmare, ary-light rs fern,
ImaginatiOns very self in stone!
With one long IGN Of infinite release
From pedantIies past, present or 10 come,
looked ana owned myself happy Goth
That from the hight gleamed seward many-hued
Something more friendly with their ruder skies
TIE gray spre, molten now IN driving mist,
Now lulled with the IncOmmunicabe blue;
The carvings touched to meanings new with snow,
or commented with feeug grace Of shade;
The statues, motley as mans memory,
Partial as that, 80 mixed Of true and false,
History aud legend meeting with kiss
Across this bOundmark where their realms confne;
The painted windows irecking gloom with glow,
Dusking the sunshine which they seem to cheer,
Meet symbol Of the senses and the soul:
And the whole pile. grim with the NOrthman's thought,
OfHie ana dcath' ana doom, ne equal lee
These were before me-
We cannot reproduce, any more than we give the
ease and lightness of the poem, the felcites of
thought and phrase in which it abOunds but few
Of its memorable lines and passages we must allow
ourselves the pleasure of quoting in however dscOn-
nected and dcsultOry fashion:
second. thoughts are prose;
For bcauty's acme hath term as brief
As the waves pOise before II break In pearl.
breath diUS the mirror of the sense
Looking TOO long and closely at a flash
We snatch the essential grace Of meaning out
And that first passion beggars all behind,
Heirs Of a tanner transport prepOssessed."
&c I blame not in the soul this daintiness.
Rasher OF surfeit than bumnlngDird,
In things indifferent purveyed by sense;
II argues her an immortality
And dateless incomes ~ experience
This unthrift Housekeeping that will not brook
A dish warmedOver AT the feast Of life,
And finds Twice stale, served with whatever sauce"
" Change is the mask that al Continuance wears
70 keep youngsters harIneSsy amused;
Meanwhile some ailing or more watchful chlld
Sitting apart, sees the cid eyes CLEAN out,
stern, and yet soft with humorous pity too"
"whilere, men burnt men for a doubtful point.
As II the mind were quenchable with fire.
And Faith danced round them with her warpaint on,
DeyOutly savage as an IrOquOis
Now Calvin and Servetus az one board
Snuf in grave sympathy milder roast
Aud DER their olaret settle Comte unread"
p" The bird hear sings not from yonder elm
But the flown ecstasy my childhood heard
Is vocal In my mind, renewed by him.
HAPPY made Bweeter by the accumulate thrill
That threads my undivided life and steals
pathos from tho years and graves between"
" Fagot and stake were desperately sincere:
Our cooler martyId0ms are done IN types;