The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1871-04-17
= -. rr.,r,,t;ssyy,c Of Poetry.

S.nc,s Gerry Fairfield, In coInHtu-
MI: 20 the New York Gtooe, IN Wnlch
M 'is,ssfsnds Mr.. Bret Harte rom some anon n.y.
nous on s1H the Bret Hartc style ofpoetry, /"
vle"f r. ~ criticise MIR. John Hays - Banty
T anu more especially in regard to Its inac-
I,ma,,;es az tn dialect. We copy rs follows:
&c nass no criticism on the Bret Harte
s+,,a r. noctry, as II is now termed. Most
of il ia ephemeral, great deal OF It Is mel
fahly vulgar more Of it still is undeniaDiy
St1I3id. and Mr.. John Hays attempts in the
a;,, aro a frif}e inartistic. Witness, for eX-
smple. this from Ranty 1'im,' IN the lust
Harper's Weekly: s...
"And rurder than that give notice,
Ef one OF We otchcs the boy, .
He kin heck his trunks 10 warmer cline
Than hen find in lllanoy."
1t Is needless to remark that cline isn't
the word to put into the mouth OF man
who speaks the English of Tilmon JOY, and
prefers fgrder to further. Country, spelled
after the manner Of the now current Josh
Billingsgate, might pass : but the vernacu.
lar is " place" Again, "turder than that -
is perfectly ;nadmiSsible. A pumpkin who
would say fi,rder" at sill, which, so far MS
] have circulated north, south, east, or
west, is very exceptional, would contract
the than" and condense into "furder'n
that" "Fur,her'n that" is yernacular
everywhere. Kin for can is Sam Slick over
again, but nowhere appears in point OF
fact. In the dialect Of the West as we'll as
the East, can is pronounced as an enclitic,
with an obscure sound like that OF In
master. Take another example
'"nl along toward dusk seen thing
'H"'t believe for spell;
that Tlm-w.s crawln' to me
cou.S "roof, gilt edged he'll"
1nSt m!g Egsh,t fire.. red is exceed
,;,. >'v. the
Here the CoInpOunu S"ee 30
ingly graphic but, untortuna...:a
army ifiiom is expressed by the WORD pa
YET, During the war the boys, with WHY
turn of the military significance oil Inc
word. were in the habit of terming battie
a brevet hell, but never tire-prool or gut
EDGED one. Again, the vernacuiar never
omits the in towards, rs MIR. Hays nero
has, and dark Is current instead OF DUSK Il :.
"Towards dark" not "toward dusk" IS
what Tilmon Joy actually did say, II ne salo
ANYTHING at all, which is more than DOUBT
full. Than this quatrain / have never seen
stanza more wildly idiomatlc IN Inc "hole
range of descriptive verse:
when the rest retreated stayed behind
For reasons sufficient to me ,
Wu:, a lib caved ~ and a lex on strike
Isprawled on that cursed glaccc.'
But here. again, cuSSed, i'll place OF the
formal cursed. is the only admissible or
biography of the qualitier OF giacee. so on
and so on, and SO on, one might run tht
whole gauntlet of the ballad, pointing ou
artistic, or, rather, lnartls,lc biunoers o.
the doZen-for more thorough Jumbie
inaccuracies rs to dialect was never printed
But I prefer to like the graphicality OF tn
doocerel, Notwithstanding, while disllklnI
its yulparity and want of art, and to b
Herewith content. The last stanza / mus
transfer as really the most idiomatic one
the whole rigmarolc, and vastly enectife
1t runs thus:
$50, my gentle gazelles, thar's my answer,
And heie stay Banty Tim;
He trumped Deaths ace for me that day,
And I'm not goin buck ON him
You may r, zooot till the cows come homo,
But eff one Of you tetches tue boy,
He'll wrastle hts hash to-nighs In hell,
Urmyn names not Iilmon Joyl'
OF course "my name amt" would b
artistic in place OF "my names not,
which is inartistic. 1t would trouble M
Hay, perhaps, to scan the fourth lint
which hasn't the least melody OF any sor
except as four iambic feet, while the metz
calls for only three feet, which may b
either iambic or anapaSt.
mean no disrespect to Mr.. Hay or b
verses, than which Saving the artistic II
accuracies and the obvious lack on the I>al
of the author of that musical instint
which the Arabs term seeing with one
ear) l have never found anything of til
kind more intensely and terribly graph
in passages. trust / shall not be unde
stood, however, as having mistaken b
verses for poetry. / agree, too, that tn
style of poetry cannot be written down ;
altogether ephemeral and transient, b.
cause there is d great deal "a strong inf
sion, in fact,) Of nature in it, though of til
coarsest kind,