New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-07-09
OBLIGATORY ADDRESS.

The poem was received with hearty applause and then
followed the
OBLIGATORY ADDRESS.
BAYARD TAYLOR
We have been eighty years an organized nation,
two hundred years an American race, and today for
the hrt time IN our hhSCTy' we eeI 10 ueoiGate pn
Poet The occasion Is thus lifted above the circle OF
personal which inspired it, takes its place.
as the beginning OF epoch in the story OF cul
ture carries thoughts back OF the commencement
literature grew and forward, far beyond the closing
the before into the possible growth and glory Of
The rhythmical expression Of emotion or passion,
universal gon the prophetic foreruuner well as
the lastbegotten offspring OF civilization Poetry be-
people, aud TO the refined ease OF their
Es a1Ty and the o 9Ss dea Of I ecedng far
ther and farther spheres OF spiritual Beauty men rise
ferrS baItefwn from he songs Of ITS early ages and
the inspiring associations Of its Past and set here face 70
face with stern tasks which left no space for the lighter
play the mind The early generations OF English bards
gradually became foreign TO ns Tor Their songs however
sweet were not those OF our home We profess 10 clam
an equal Chaucer and Spenser aud Shakespeare
but we cannot truly feel that they belong to peO
pie The destiny that placed this sO robbed us Of
lions Of history the sentiment of inherited homes and
CUSTOMS and left shOrn OF lsping childhood, 10
II is singular therefore, that this Continent should
e enery Of Character the moral f6Pceeven the occa
sional taste and refinement were shipped hther
already porOned out for them and the MUSES. discovered
nook guarded leisure no haunt OF sweet cOntem-
Labor may be PRAYER but Is not Poetry Liberty OF
Of Ciy1 order and Personal Independence, ideas
soil which they strike root too full fresh IN
sOfened forces 10 produce the delicate wine OF Song
The highest product OF ripened intellect cannot be e4
pected In the homage Of nation. The poetry OF our
colonial and revolutionary periods is mostly sprtess
imitation Of inferior models in the parent country. IT,
here and there, sOme tinid, uncertain seems TO
guess the true language we only hear i once or twice.
like those coonzed nightngales which for one brief
Summer gave their new song 70 the Vrgnian mOonhRts
and then disappeared These early fragments Of our
poetry ehaned IN the midst Of such profound silence
and loneliness that they sound specially 70
own hunter and deer.
In the same year in which the Constitution Of the
United States was completed and adopted the poet
was bornRchard Henry Dana who stil lives, and, de-
spite his gray head still keeps the freshness and youth Of
the poetic nature Less than three years after him FItz
Greene Haeck came into the world-the lyrical genius
brotBer In Haeef tbeTeforsi we mourn our rst loss
out Of the first generation OF American bardsi and
which we lovingly pay to his memory Lei us he glad
not only that these honors have been noby deserved
agel Let us forget our sorrow for the true the
whom return TO the soil that bore him for the
brave bright aud beautiful growth OF healthy masculine
race No morbid impotence with the restrictions OF life
ruess lament over ideal Inherited
gloom OF temperament, such as nnds delight In what 10
his verse; touched the sunny cheefuness OF his hso
ry The cries and protests, tho utterances OF world
led the world. awoke echo In his sound aud sturdy
nature Hls I've ohsIs no enigmas Tor our solution No
the interest Of shallow sentmentalism Clear, frank
simple and consistent his song and his life
into smooth and thread We would willingly par
don In him expression Of dissatisfaction with a
SS%e q e son IN @ s he e
fhe basis Of his nature knghtly bravery of such
drm and enduring temper that II kept from him even the
ordinary senstyeness OF the poetic character From the
time Of HE studies boy, Ia the prOpltous kitchen
which heard his first callOw numbers, 10 the
last DAYS Of a life which had liberal
popular recognition Of his Deserts he accepted his for
tune with the perfect dignity OF man who cannot stOop
10 discomfort During his later Wits 70 New York the
simplest the nnobtrusiye, yet the cheerfues man
10 30 seen among the thrOnRs of Broadway, FItz
Greene Halleck Yet with al his simplicity, bis bearing
was stfklngy gallant and fearless the carriage Of his
head suggested the wearing Of helmet The genial
fraDkness and grace Of his manner 10 his intercourse
with men, has suggested 10 others the epthet cOuTtly"
but prefer % call II manly as the expression OF
Tarer and finer quality than Is usually found in the
Haiieck Tss loyal to himself AZ man. and he was also