The weekly North-Carolina standard., 1869-04-07
E1tz Greene HalIeck.

deal eft it is written before the authors can
be Justly said to have reached years OF dis
cretien. With the great number 1t runs.lts
course and passes off like the measles or the
chicken pox; with few 1t takes the chronic
form and lasts lifetime, and l have known
cases of persons attacked by it in old age
A very small number who begin, like Mil
ton, Gowley, and Pope, to write verses when
scarce out of. childhood, afterward become
eminent poets but as rule, precocity IN
this departments of letters is no sign OF ge-
MUS s-,.--l sll o 5sl..i re- a1
In the verses of Halleck which General
Wilson has collected; written in 1909 and
1915, and earlier, / discern but slight traces
of his peculiar genius, and none OF the grace
and spirit which afterward became so mark
ed. They are better, it is true, than the Ju-
veniIe poems, which cucumber the latter col
lections of the poetry OF Thomson, but they
are not characteristic. Between the time
when they were written and that in which
he produced the poems which are commonly
called the Croakers. his poetic faculty npen-
ed rapidly, and as remarkably asthat OF By
ron between the publication OF his Hours OF
Idleness and that of Childe Harold.
His fancy had been quickened into new
life; he had learned to WELD his native Ian
guage like master. he had discovered that
he WAS wit as well as poet; and his
verse had acquired that sweetness and mod
ulation which afterward distinguished it.
The poems which bear the signature OF
Croaker and Croaker & Co, written by him
in conjunction with his friend, Joseph Rod
man Drake, began in 1919 to appear in the
Ecening Post, then conducted by Mr. Coleman.
That gentleman observed their merit with
surprise, and commended them in his daily
sheet, and vas gratitied to learn that the
whole town was talking of them. 1t was
several years after this that Mr.. Coleman,
said to me: 81 was curious to see the young
men whose witty verses, published in my
journal, made so much noise, and desired an
interview with them. They came before
me, and was greatly struck by their ap-
pearance. Drake looked the poet. You .
saw the stamp of genius in every feature.
Haileck had the aspect of satirist." There
is certain manner common to both authors
in these poems They both write with play
fulness and gayety, and, although with the
freedom of men who never expected to be
known, yet without malignity; but it seems
to me Halleck drove home his jests with the
sharpest percussion, and there are some flash
es of that fire which blazed out in his Marco
Bozzaris. <=- as e,
On one occasion his habit of maintaining
an usual opinions in manner between jest
and earnest, had consequence which his
friends regretted. Seth Cheney, the estima-
be artist, who died in 1856. drew portraits
of the size of life in crayon, using no colors,
with extraordinary skill in transferring to
4hae ebaa< hofo Ii 41aG II oil
vated expression of which the countenance
of his sitter was capable He always
wrought with certain creative enthusiasm
like that of the poet His best portraits, at
the same time that they are good likenesses,
have something angelic In their aspect 1t
is : told of Dana, the poet, after
looking with wonder at one of these
drawings, the likeness of lady more
eminent for goodness than beauty, he said:
st is our friend as she will be at the resur-
rection." Cheney could never bring him
self to receive for sitters those for whom he
did not entertain decided respect, and for
that reason declined to take the likeness of
certain men distinguished il public life.
Halleck once sat to him, but the artist found
the frame of mind which he brought to his
task disturbed by the free and sportive man
ner in which bis sitter spoke of certain
grave matters, and one morning when Hal
leck came as usual, Cheney said to him: L
have finished your lkeless." "You have
been expeditions" said the poet Yes,n-
returned Cheney, 81 put it into the fire this
morning. That was the last of Halleck's
sitting to Cheney; but if the poet had not
jested SO unseasonably, we should probably
have had one of Cheney's finest heads, for
Halleck, with his beaming countenance, was
a capital subject for such an artist.
Halleck was much besieged. as authors of
note, particularly poets, are apt to be, with
applications from persons desirous of
appearing in print, to read their manu-
script verses, and give his opinion of their
merits. I have heard him say that he never
turned them away with an unfrendly an
swer Isuppose that, regarding poets as
sensitive tribe, keenly alive to unfavorable
criticism, he spared them as much as he
could, though l doubt very much whether
they obtained from him any opinion worth
the trouble they had taken. If what 1 write
should fall under the eye of any person of
either sex POLITICALLY inclined and ambitious
of renown, l would strongly advise them
against sending their verses to poet for this
Judgment. In the first place, it does not fol-
low that because he passes for a poet, he is
therefore q competent critic; in the sec
ond place. they may be sure that he will
have little time to look at their verses and,
thirdly, he Will naturally be so desirous to
treat their ease tenderly, that his opinion
will be of little value | have always
counseled persons of,this class, if they must
come before the public, not to seek the
opinion of individuals, but to get their verse
printed in the periodicals that will accept
them. and t, ,us appeal to the reading world
at large. which. is the only proper judge Of
poetic meret.
I have my own ysay OF aoeesnting ior DIS
literary silence in se latter hah o! nus iiie.
One of the resembla. Ses whlcn ne D"fe W
Horace consisted in t. length ef time Ior
which he kept his poe Ts by MIN, fhat ne
might give them the .sst ana DapPlese
touches He bad a tenacio US Verpal hieiho-
ry and, having composed his poems VITA,
out committing them to paptT, ne revised
them in the same manner, murhqnring theni
to himself in his solitary moments, recover
ing the enthusiasm with which t,Scy were
first conceived, and in this state o. mind
: heightening that beauty of the thought or
; OF the expression. remember that once IN
crossing Washington Park saw Halleck be-
fore me, and quickened my pace to overtake
him. As !. drew near heard him grooming
to himself What seemed to be lines of verse,
and as he'tHfew back his hands in walking,
Ipefoeived they Suigered with the feeling of
the passage he was reciting. instantly
checked my pace and tell back, out of rev.
erence for the mood of inspiration which
seemed TO be upon him, and fearful lest
should intercept the birth of poem des-
tined to be the ei'delight Of thousands of
teaders. .ss5 $3.50 H.; 81