New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-11-12
NEW PUBLICATIONS

Fields, CsROOd x %
There are elements in poetry, as in all the NV y,
Arts but they are stubborn aud uumanageaDle III az
hands except those Of the poet whom we wiN su,.
nose harm for his art "A the ancients believed ouO
who never really becomes artist without 'o 80
conscientious study and the most careIu' Pi'oI',
Great poets like great artists. always n''''i 80
materials: small poets. like small arlStN' nv
mastered by them: the issue is Gou"'i'' VIZ -
class who me nov triumphant, ana nov N""4i'i'N
why in either case, IL Is not easy w "o'Ci
To this last class Mr. TrOwbndge appears " pelous
What strikes us first in reaa'Is HIS 'viSo Is ,u"'
innort no finish 70 IT, either because he IS babltuaiiy
- - b.,,,se he has failed TO apprehend
.Iat 81 hicb finish consists. Ii IS ms misfor-
60 o,d not his fanlt that his 2sense OF
melody is deficient, as BrOwniid5s is; but
4. = his fault that he attempts to write
Uke Browning. without Having sufficiently 7nVesti-
,,ated the laws which govern some Of hiS own pro-
ductions There are several pieces in hs volume
which ought to come ander the head of dramatic
ooems but which dOnOt. What constitutes dramatic
postry need not be determined here. further than
that one Of It's elements and perhaps the chehest Is
the element Of the Characteristic. poem which Is
not characteristic OF its supposed speaker, whatever
other excelences il may possess is not dramateG II
may be lyrical il may be narratiyedramatic 1t &c +
tainly is not. The difference between browning )
method and Mr. TrowbTidge's want of method, win
be apparent if the reader will compare La CanTa--
trice" with "The Last Duchess" In the latter
everything is indicated; in the former, described
Browning gives us perfect picture painted We
know not how; Mr.. TrOwbridge. sketch maze up
of details every one Of which IS laid on before our
eyes. The FIRST sanza of La Cantatrice" Is an
example in point:
by day. at u high oak desk stand
And trace IN Il ledger hno by line
But az five O'Clock you dials hahd
Omen the cage wherein plne;
Down through the thunder Of boots ana "Aecis'
/ wonder il even q monarch feels
such royal JOY as mine !"
There are seven more such stanzas and IN all we
find the same attention TO details, and the same lack
AT GENERAL effect The supposed speaker does not
know when to stop there is no reticence about HIM.
as There would be If his shadowy personality were
the nouth-piece of Browning's genius, aud as there
slonld be- if we are to consider him dramatic crea-
ton. We detect no motive in his soliloquy--no
reason why il should be spoken, nor whether 1t Is
spoken 10 himself, or some other person. The sud-
deRness too, with which the scenes are shifted
destroys the sense of unity, as regards time and
Mace and destroys also the last vestige OF the
dramatic in ia Cantatrce" The objections
We have made 90 this poem apply with
equal force to "Our Lady" and My Brother
Ben but with much less force to The NagabOnds''
which we can praise, in spite Of its bad rhymes and
its occasional violations oft own laws OF metre
II poet be not born "Of imagination all com
pact" il is possible for him cultivate in himself
he lesser quality of fancy, as many poets have
shown, and none with more success of certain sort
than the poets of America Mr. Longfellow stood az
The head Of orr fancful poets some fifteen twenty
years ago but his influence has since declincd-a
fact Of which Mr. Trowbridge does not appear to be
aware The poorest results of Mir. LOngfellow's
fancy are the poems in which he recalls one by one
the separate objects described by him, in tho en-
deayor TO find spiritual significance corresponding
To each and to make out of the whole moral
"The Beleaguered City" is the most marked ex-
ample OF artificial and ncongruous fancy III
his works, and the false method of tins
poem is the one above all Others which IN
fuenced Mr.. Trowbridge in writing BY the River"
His object if we have rightly OWNED it, was to de-
met the scenery along the banks of river, and this
he has accomplished, though with greater amount
of mere imagery than we could have desired. For
what il is howeycr-a fresh and picturesque sketch
of rural scenery" By the River" is successful and
would have been more if Mr. TrOwbridge had only
stopped when the end was reached. country
stream is no more susceptible of allegOry than city
at midnight. and in his struggle to evolve alegory
ont of one Mr.. Trowbrdge is moro ingenious than
poetical. and more poetical than intelllglDle. we
can sympathizo with a mood OF mind III which a
river becomes an image Of the WOrld-the ever
coming neyerstayfns, rush and roar of things but
\ TO attempt to distinguish what the sky above, the
bank here the trees yonder are separately images
Of is ITO consider too culouly' Not so, however,
thinks Mir Trowbridge TO whom tho skies are "blue-
archcd Centuries and who somehow sees by the
river the Tree Of Life, banks of Peace, realms of
Poesy. shores OF Beauty, and hills of Truth But
tha climax is reached in his last four lines:
"The orb that burns in the riffs OF space
l. the adumbration OF Gods Face.
Ny Soul lcIus UyCr the murmurlng Ie"'
And am the Image 1t sees below
prime defect Of modern poetry is that it makes
too much Of landscape By forcing it into sympathy
with rovcry and emotion; but in all our reading we
remember nothing inherently false as the second
part Of " BY the River" Let us turn to something
b,ttor-a little bit of landscape painted FOR its own
sake:
"The butterfly and humhlebee
Come to the pleasant woods with me-
Her chickens s<ulk behind the rul;
High up the lone wOOd-pigeOn sits,
Aud the w0odpecRer pecks ana nlJs. -,
The brOoket rings It's tinkling bells.
The swasuiug insects drOuc ana hum.
The partridge beats his thrObbing drum.
Tile squirrel leaps among the boughs,
Aud chatter, n his leafy house.
Into the mirror OF lie brook.
Where the vain blucbrd trims his coat.
Two tiny feathers ldll and float"
Thisls good description of its kind and the fall
ing Of the feathers pretty touch of nature. Unfor
tunately however, this last incident suggests little
'~"ral to Mr.. Trowbridge, who must .:Iiy something
49,
sbout the dawn of peace and how be feels when
An communion with the scene.
The conclusion of "Mdwinter" is mared by the
same fault; otherwise the poem is good. as are most
at Mr. Trowbridges rural poems, which are we
think, the truest things that he writes. He has
fine feeling for nature though rather in detail than