The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1870-05-28
The Nineteenth Century.

The June number of The Nineteenth Century
opens with vigorously written article upon
''The Status and Prospects of the Negro We
hope, however, to be able to prove to the
writer, in the course of q few years, that South
Carolina can live and prosper although she
has majority of black votes. "Morna Ell
verley" and "Thc Storm and Sunset !" are
continued. Ex-Governor Perry gives brief
sketch of the life of John Quincy Adams. and
Mr.. G. B. Lamar, Sr., of Savannah. joins bat
tie with Governor Perry over the official
corpus OF ex-President Andrew Johnson. Hr.
Lamar denies that Mr.. johnson Is ga man of
'great wisdom, ability, patriotism and firm
''ness," and writes him down one who I" is
6 not in any degree entitled to the just admi-
"ration Of any honest man.
The principal poem in the number is
. Ernesdyl," by Mr. P. j. Malone, of Charles
ton. The very name shows the creative power
and originality of this rising young poet, who
will, we trust, be properly encouraged. In
the poem, which is about two hundred lines
in length, are two passages which should be
remembered This Is one
"The forty years OF gathered SHOWS glide down,
From his bent shoulders like an avalanche,
And once again erect In youth he stands.N
The thought may be as old rs the hills. but
1t is well expressed, which is a great deal now
a-days. And this couplet is pretty. even if
the second line halts little:
Just az the genial sun OF April strikes
Into the tTig life OF buds and blooms"
There are, as in the greatest works, some
awkward passages. The use of acatkt, as the
prcterite of the verb 10 ,oalk, looks like stretch
ing a point, and such an expression as she
.prideS in most is not English, although it
may be used i'll
-" That blue mountain range
That bolts the Carolinas.'
The realistic touches in "Ernesdyl" are
brimtul Of pathos. What might be called Ideal
realism is Mr. Malone's forte. He can speak
of spade so that it will sound like double
action steam plough, and throws over the
simplest words the mantle Of poetic thought.
What for instance, could be sweeter than this
lament Oh inc WIG vi Tic Loru VI Elucsusi'
"I'ye had no luck this year-no luck.
At least, rs once had with eggs and milk;
The good old times arc gone; hens lay so ILL.,.
Who cannot sympathize with "thc beautiful
old lady," who connects the fall of empires
and the crash of worlds with the degeneracy
Of COWS and the dcarth Of spring chickens {?
Again
SLast year lost three l'le calppS in one day.
All by one stroke timing
No one will have the hardihood TO deny that
this is true poetry, and within the comprehen-
sion of every man and boy (and calf?) in the
State. The star of Tennyson must pale its
Intellectual fires.
Mr. Malone will allow us to hint that some of
his rhymes are I" lectle defective. Lou ana
ne,o will not. do. Bush, to pair with thrush, is
not as good Us brush. And Limb and clim0
will never go together-why not try Tim?
We did want to know what is 7" the knee "
of dairy-house, and whether "alien jars =
are intended for holding foreign preserves
but this would be hypercriticlsm the more
particularly as an Indulgence in eleyen-year
old Scuppernong wine, the make Of Dame
Ernes. of milk and chicken memory, obfus-
Gates the mighty brain of the poetic historian
of the glories Of Ernesdy." lie quaffs the
wine
"And what she said or show'd me afterward,
cannot state with such exactitude;
In fact, did the talking mostly then"
This frank confession brings this pastoral
poem to close.
The Nineteenth Century, we omitted to say,
is now ''a handsome book of ninety-six
pages