Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1871-04-22
:: SATURDAY EVENING, APRIL %. 1871
The Bret Harte style Of Poetry.

Mr.. Francis Gerry Fairfield, in com
munication TO the New York Globe, in
which he defends Mr.. Bret Harte from
some anonymous ISLANDERS, takes occa-
sion to give his views on the " Bret Harte
style of poetry" and to criticise Mr.
John Hays "Banty Tim" more espe-
cially in regard TO its Inaccuracies as to
dialect. We copy as follows:
l pass no criticism on the Bret Harte
style of poetry, as it is now termed
Most of it is ephemeral, a great deal Of
it is ineffably vulgar, more Of il still is
undeniably stupid, and Mr.. Jonn Hay's 8
attempts in the vein are trihe inartis-
tic. Witness, for example, this from
Banty Tim, in the last Harper's Week
ly:e ~
And furder than that give notice.
Eff one of you tetches the boy.
| He kin check his trunks to a warmer cline
Than I'll find In Illanoy.
1t is needless to remark that cline
isn't the word to put into the mouth of
man who speaks the English Of Til
mon Joy, and prefers furder to further.
Country, spelled after the manner of the
now current Josh Billingsgate, might
pass; but the vernaeular is place T
Again, " "furder than that is perfectly
inadmissable A pumpkin who would
say furder' at all, which, SO far as /
have circulated north, south, east or west,
is very exceptional, woald contract the
"than," and condense into " furder n
than" /" Further'n that is vernacnlar
everywhere. Kin for can is Sam Slick
over again, but nowhere appears in point
of fact In the dialect of the West, as
well as the East, can is pronounced as
an enclitic, with an obscure sound like
that of in master. Take another ex-
ample:
Till along toward dusk seen a thing
| l couldn't believe for q spell: .g
That nigger-that Tim-was a -crawlin' TO me
Through that ire-proof, gilt-edged hell
Here the compound gilt-edged is ex-
ceedingly graphic; but, unfortunately,
the army idiom is expressed by the word
brevet. During the war the boys, with
witty turn of the military significance
of the word, were in the habit of term
ing battle brevet hell but never a
fire-proof or gilt-edged one. Again, the
vernacular never omits the s in towards,
as Mr.. Hays hero has, and dark is cur
rent instead of dusk. Towards dark,
not toward dusk" is what Tilmon Joy
actually did say, if he said anything at
ALL which is more than doubtful Than
this quatrain / have never seen stanza
more vividly idiomatie in the whole
range of descriptive verse;
"When the rest retreated l stayed behind,
For reasons sufficient to me-
With rib caV0d in. md n leg on n strike.
sprawled on that cursed glacee.'
But here, again, cussed in place Of
the formal cursed, is the only admissible
photography Of the qualifer of glacee.
So on, and so on, and so on, one might
run the whole gauntlet of the ballad,
pointing out artistic, or, rather, inartis-
tic blunders by the dozen-for more
thorough tumble of inaccuracies as to
dialect was never printed. But prefer
to like the graphically of the doggerel,
Notwithstanding, while disliking its vul-
garity and want of art, and to be there
with content. The last stanza / must
transfer as really the most idiomatic one
of the whole rigmarole, and vastly eff
fective. 1t runs thus:
So, my gentle gazeIles, thar's my answer,
And here stays Banty Tim;
He trumped deaths ace for me that day,
And IN not going back on him
You may rezoloot till the COWS come home,
But Of one of you tetches the boy,
He'll wrastle his hash tonight in hell,
Or my names not Tilmon Joyl
OF course "my name amt would be
artistic in place Of my names not,
which is inartistic. 1t would trouble Mr..
Hay, perhaps, to scan the fourth line,
which hasn't the least melody of any
sort, except as four iambic feet, while the
metre calls for only three feet, which
may be either iambic or anapest.
| mean no disrespect to Mr.. Hay or
his verses, than which (saving the artistic
inaccuracies and the obvious lack on the
part Of the author OF that musical in
stinct which the Arabs term seeing with
ones earl have never found anything
of the kind more intensely and terribly
graphic in passages. trust / shall not
be understood, however, as having mis-
taken his verses for poetry. agree,
too, that this style of poetry cannot be
written down as altogether ephemeral
and transient, because there is a great
deal Ia strong infusion, in fact, of ma
ture in it, though of the coarsest kind.