The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1870-06-11

maFEid5C, he loIes another blaH u5 Cu..a-L
lady whom he meets rs he approached for t. first
time his palace. In the surrounding u..
by chance
"He saw the lady's prOdigal dark hair
And wOndrous loneliness !"
and, having seen, he never forgot the vision.
She was one of those, in the poets words,
.........-.." Whose fervent souls are wed
To glorious bodies, PanoPliel for love,
To give and gather kisses, and to move
All men with longing after them-to know
What flowers of paradise for lovers grow"
Love sprang up at once between the lady and
the prince; yet it was not confessed at the first
meeting:
"only their eyes told what they could not say,
For still their lips spoke eleven words That day"
They parted and in married life the prince
endeavored TO forget this imperious and sudden
passion. He struggled against it, and he passed
several years in happy wedlock when, meeting
again the queens rival, all his old love for her
famed up anew. In spite of their long separation,
each in the others fancy SO had dweIt,
THAT, as one sees for days a sweet strange face,
Until in dreams at night he does caress
Its owner, and next morning in some place
Meets her, and wonders if she too can guess
How near and known he thinks her-in this wise
They read one story in each others eyes.
"Her thick hair, falling from its lilies, hid
Their first long kiss OF passion and content.
He heard her son, glad murmur, as she slid
Within his hold, and 'gainst his bosom leant,
whispering Al last! at last the years were sore,
From that time forward, the prince lived a
double life; for the secret of his forbidden love
was guarded until the day of his death. Finally,
however, after long mental conflict, he determined
to break off this liaison, and to live faithful to
his queen but on the very day in which he sets
out to execute his resolve he is killed in his own
forests by the fall of a tree. lie is mourned
with reverent affection by the nation and elo-
quent inscriptions record his stainless virtue.
Soon after this event the queen is thrown by
accident into the society of her still unsupported
rival, who has retired, since the death of the
prince, to a convent, and, has resolved to expiate
her sin by confession and she tells the story of
the kings unfaithfulness to the incredulous and
Infatuated queen. The dialogue between the two
women is a powerful and dramatic scene, it is
marred however by an offence against literary
taste. Describing the rage of the queen upon
hearing the confession of her rival, the poet says:
"The tger-that is prisoned at Iifes start
In mortas, though per chance it never wakes
Her lips grew white, and on her nostriIs fakes
o6Orah and fOathing stood"
This passage may plead q classic precedent. But
this is pathology, not poetry.
The passages that follow are fine. A strong
revulsion takes place in the queens feeling to-
ward the memory of her lord, and toward the
living world. Thenceforward, to her
"The air seemed full Of lies, the realmunsound
Her cOurtiers knaves her maidens, good and fair,
Most shameless bawds her children chung around
s~huddering, she turned her face his features took
A shining horror from his fathers look"
The queen died broken-hearted and her secret
persisted with her. The world still cherishes the
pure memory of the Blameless Prince and only
TO the poet is revealed the tragedy of these three
lives.
The versiiication of the poem is highly melodi-
Gus and it's analysis of the passions and the
principles which struggle for the mastery of the
princes heart are 4 continual comment upon the
dogma, Love is crime The poem is not,
however, in any formal sense didactic. The facts
off pathetic experience are given, and the reader
is left to his own interpretations of their sig
ni6cance.
The minor poems, which occupy the latter half
of the volume, possess n varied interest and as L
have begun to speak of poetry, / will finish by
giving some account of them. They are divided
into a. Songs and Studies,' y a. Poems of Nature,'
g Shadow-Land - and 81 TRANSACTIONS from Theo-
~critus.'' Picturesque transcripts of New Eng
land life are given in I" Country Sleighing - and
:" Inc DOOrsUep. Ihe peculiar HHfHy rhytnm
in the former poem is fascinating:
"The windows glsien, the old folks listen
To hear the s~egh-bells pass:
The fields grow whittier, the stars are brighter,
The road. is smooth as glass
Our mufied faces burn,
The clear north wind blows cold,
The girls all nestle, nestle. nestle,
Each in her lovers hold" |
The following verses are called
THE rnYsr.
Sleeping, l dreamed that thou vast mine
In some ambrosal lovers shrine.
My lips against thy lips were pressed, t
And all our passion was confessed; -.sy . |
So near and dear my darling seemed,
know not that ] only dreamed.
Waking, this mid and moonlight night,
clasp thee close by lovers right.
Thou fearest not my warm embrace,
fFt And vet so like the dream thy face /
And kisses--I but half partake
The joy, and know not fl waken
Sat Twilight and the {" Autumn Song " are
swallow-fights Of melody which | would quote,
but that space forbids. Mr.. Stedman's poetry is
characterized by a felicity of phrase and of rhythm,
by a sculpturesque beauty of expression, and by
a choice of effective subjects. We may estimate
81 The Blameless Prince , as a welcome contribu-
ton to American 6eHeslettres, as the flower of a
fine nature, even though it springs up in the arid
soil of this city, where is Mr.. Stedman's house
and business. For the poet is a Wall street man,
as busy as the rest : and his art has both merits