The interior journal. [volume] (Stanford, Ky.) 1872-1881, 1872-11-22
A IIa-ty Look mt Joaquin NIL
Ier's Poetry.


Three years ago, this Autumn. we
found in one Of the Sun Frnnci.co jour
mails. among some critical notices.'a brief
review of volume of poems published
at Portland, in Oregon-under what IT,
tie We forget-and in which. somewhat
summarily dismissing the book itself, the
critic quoted several peculiar stan1as,
one Of which read rs follows:
II am az one unlcarncd, uncouth,
From country come to Join the youth
Of some sweet town in quest Of truth;
\ Na1arcne of wood and plain
N-Wc-t, froui whencc no good may come.
stand apart as one that's dumb.
hopc-I fcar-l hasten home.
plunge into my wilds again
Thi. stan1a, as copied in the newspaper
notice, seemed to Us, perhaps the authors
own expression regarding himself, struck
us with its peculiar quaintness, and hav-
ing reprinted it with brief word Of ex.
PLANTATION ~ coming from the frst pub
lished book Of Oregon poems, we found
that nearly all the newspapers East and
West, ,beginning.if we remember rightly,
with the New York Sun, repeated the
stanza and paragraph. Such, therefore,
was, we believe, joaquin Miller's frst
poetic introduction 10 an Atlantic audi
cncc. Last year. among the extracts
that came over To- Us from London, in
advance Of the "Sonrs Of the Sierrus" in
volume, we we've smprised Ia find and
recognize the stanza, 10 which We had
given currency eighteen months or two
years previous il is on page 40 of the
Boston edition. so, after all, Joaquin
Miller hal his first wide hearing through
the columns n Cincinnati journal. We
relate this rs n pleasant fact-not as one
very valuable to Mr. Miller or ourselves.
How long. nevertheless, might he have
slept ia those "coniinious woods where
rolls the Oregon" a. Bryants already
ancient proverb has it, "and hears no
sound save its own dashings," if he had
not made that strange and daring witt
10 London, and found the English litera'
tear, jaded and suffering under the
long. slow jaundice of Tennyson, eager
for something new, and ready to recog
ni1e in this impetuous burst Of Western
air and sunshine, with it, hitherto un'
spoken, but now suggested grandeurs Of
shape and color-with its men and wo
mon as picturesque and lawless as tn,
landscapc-a prophecy atleast Of possible
escape from the oppressive dollhouse all
Of artificial English verse-making.
We doubt if itcan be shown that ther,
is anything new Of fashion in Joaquin
Miller. The larger number of ms poems
are written in the octosyllabic measure, 5,
familiar half a century ago in SCOTS anC
Byron's and Moorc's romances, with
however, a freedom ard largeness of NOR,
natural movement often visible. Hi
people are hardly to be considered Of al
together new birth in romance Iii,
men are chiefly outllwsamong the Pacific
mountains, as Byron's were among the
Greek islands-men
"Lin king one virtue with thousand crimes,
Or men, as Mr.. Miller himself repeats it
"who erred, yet bravely dared to err;
A remnant of that early few
Who held no crime, or curse, or vice,
AS dark a. that Of cowardice;
With hlendings Of the worst and best
Of faults and virtues that have blest,
Or cursed, orthrilled the human breast"
His women, again, are nearly all of 4
pattern, as Byron's heroines were On,
Of them occurs in each poem-maryelou'
pure drown maidens), perfect, in feature
and form, with a singular, and, to NOR
civilized ladies, enviable wealth of hair
faithful and selfdevoted to the bronzeC
men, living and dying for these who
were willing to live little while bu
never die with them; and, with but two
or three exceptions, all represented to b.
last of the Montezumas' line, or, as som'
Virginian ladies boast of the blood Of Po
cahontas, claiming to havethe celestia
blood of Montezuma in their veins
And the stories told Of these men ant
women are not especially novel they arr
much like those which turned their head
and fired to the stomachs OF Byron's read
ers-"ferce wars and faithful loves" (or
the female side, bear in mind indeed
yet little or nothing in these to "moraln'
the song"
But there is one thing new in Mr.
Miller's poetry, and that, enveloping anJ
clothing all, l.akes all seem uow, giving
the old stage-work fresh effect. Thi,
fills up and overhows the Old romance