New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-07-30

La,#l-p she sharp fIo-t liii- IT, N"''O'"
Mn. Utmost colI Of long d lrk Winter days"
The poem from which these lines are taken II
morbid. m-loathseme story, which might oe''er
have been omitted. "
We have given the opposite poles oil MI hopey
weakness Where he neither spurs Ills fancy INTO
contortions. nor casts it wholly aside. his verse
is sprightly. picturesque and musical AS III INC
case of Prof. Leavitt we find it difficult to under
stand how writer with much sincere intention
can disregard the simplest rhythmica laws So in
reading Mr. Abbey's stories we constantly aston
ished at the union of good taste and skill in rhythm
and most vicious taste in epthet and imagery
Faults most unlike yet undoubtedly sprnging from
Ike cause.-the lack of earnest, conscientious STUDY
of the poetic art.
Mr.. Abbey's best poem is called "Karagwe' tne
African "a tale Of slave well and SIMPLY Decau'o
naturally, told:
An African, thick Tipped and heavy 9 tee,s
A forehead high, and beetling at the orows
FnouCh to show strong perceptye, tnoneh'
Ran ont beyond the cycsght ~ an lhInHS
negro with no claim to any IleT, Issos,
savage with 10 knowledge we possess
or science, art or books. or government
Slave from SLAYER to the Georgia coast
His life disposed Of at the market rate
Yet In the face OF all PLAIN. true man
Toolv and ignorant, yet brave aud good,
Kartgwe named for his native tribe
We might quote many similar passages 10 sho"
that the auther has a fresh genuine and very agree
able power Of poetic narrative; and this uDdoneted
merit. therefore, renders such faults as we nave
pointed out tie more obtrusive.
Mr.. Calvert is fine scholar. man of rare culture
and Ito Judge from his published prose) excellent
literary taste yet these advantages, while they
have given certain characteristic traces TO his ht'ie
poetical brochure seem to be held in allegiance when
he ventures into the field Of poetry. We scarcely
know where to turn for n manner so artlhclal, III
volved, oyer-weighted. The story-or rather Incl
dent-is simply that chaste young man carries
away country-ETl from house OF eWi III new
York but. at every step Of the way the author
is led from individual into what might be called
cosmical narrative. For every line of description
there is another of abstract statement, much OF
which has only the remotcs bearing upon the special
theme Indeed it is difficult to disentangle the
detached incident from tho twisted wrappings in
which il is encased. The third stanza runs thus:
"Earth's paragon, Natures dear masterpiece,-
In whom has been. to hnndredth proof, dsuuea
Her liveliCSt currents. whose uueudiuv lease
Ofnfe contracted here Is so certified
With great conditions, earth's select increase go
Breeds but a fractions mite Of what was wiled
When God made man, sleeping dormant cray
In the chaste baptism OF Immortal ray -
and so on, for three stanzas more, before we are
allowed to take breath. Now, provided the idea
clothed in the above lines so unusually subtle
or profound that it eluded a simpler form of express
we find il, at bottom ineligible enough to be con-
Trajectory. If the currents of life so certified
with great conditions" as to check the vast pos
sibe increase of man, those conditions, also, were
of course "wied when God made man." and the
law Of surplus provision, which we find equally
in the animal and vegetable world is simple neces-
sity for the preservation of the type Mr. Calvert,
in prose- is a clear thinker, and it is only bis in
volved obscure style in poetry which has tangled
his thought. So much evident labor has been be-
slowed on this poem, the epthets have been so
carefully selected, the meaphorc phrases So indus
triousy constructed that we regret being obliged
to condemn the result The broad, pure tone OF the
authors mind as detect it under all the bandages
of speech and the occasional felcities of dictlon
which we could not fail 10 find. not an equivalent
for the absence Of the ringing tempo di marcia Of
heroic lines, flashing ont their swift meaning in
light as they move But. that VIC may not do in
justice TO Mr. Calyerts capacity (if he would only
choosey we quote the smoothest and sweetest stanza
of the ninety-four
"A playmate was she of the blossomed trees
The first 70 spy the unookcdfO for cleaning rings
OF Wild.nOwers I'm the grass as at her knees
To watch her joy. The summer-heated bees
| Sang round her, as she were Of honeycd things,
And birds near her I'm Eden were, and lighted
Upon her shining shoulder unaffrighted"
ByIon's "Beppo" and don JUAN and Frcres
! "Whistecraft' are the glasses through which Hi
oronymus Anonymous has taken his Chances at the
World" The verse Of this present generation is so
sober-not to say sadit usually bears such burden
| of moral purpOse"-that a singer who should come
TO us with a wilfu rollickng strain blending humor
and satire and pathOs according to his private
whim, would receive an altogether exceptional well
come. In spite Of the afectaOn of the title-page,
we chung to the hope that we should find at least a
pleasant recreation in these Chances " but with the
best will in the world, we can give the author no
further credit than for good intentions The book is
evidently the work of man Of leisure Of some SUI
perfcal culture great conceit and the habit Of writ
ing verse for occasions" possibly prologues and
epilogues to new cOmedies but deficient in metrical
Skill IN humor, and especially in that fine insight
which, while fully approaching the genius of others,
can yet airy and harmlessy play with their charac-
terstic qualities. The medley which lie gives us has
evidently been poured naturally from an undisci-
plined mind, full of selfsuiicient but most made
! quate estimates Of men and things.
! After reference TO Time and the mOrning-stars,
the Creation, a disparagcment of Homer, reference
| to Joel Barlow, Byron, DR. johnson, Dear Burns
and Austrias Stetzhammer" (sic ., the author thus
| speaks Of Hawthorne, whom he styles Master Of
the Morbid"
| " HIS ruling genius, like lustrous flower
Ripe wish decay-GTiqlt as u sick OirrS WhimS; %
It's fruit all apple with worm at core"
Then follows a beastly fling at Mr. Willis, after
which Browning Tennyson, Longfellow. and Tup-
per- are grouped together as riding the same nag of
Manner" (the word thus italicized in the orginaD
Bryant is thereafter commended, Tennyson belttled,
and the author passes rapidly over Mrs Browning to
touch upon that gentle genius, William Gilmore
Simms." Then--we make discovery Hieronymus
mysteriOusly hints
There is q man OF worth, poet historian,
With mind OF IIaam and the style OF Hume"
and further, that this unknown genius
lives apart from haunts Of gain and strife
pure, beautiful and blameess life"