The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1872-10-28
THE MARBLE PROPHECY


This is, in many respects, the most re-
markable poem which has come from the
pen of DR.. Holland. Others have been
more artistically wrought and more skill
fully modulated as rhythmical creations
Of beauty, but none has come up to this in
that far-reaching fancy which creates
anew, and brings out the more delicate
perspective, where only the foreground is
perceived by the mediocre rhymer. 1t
will be remembered by the neurological
scholar that LAGOON was a Trojan priest
of the Thymbr@an Apollo. He endeav-
ored to prevent the Trojans from receiving
the wooden horse into the besieged city.
For this act of fidelity to his people, he
seems to have incurred the emnity Of
Poseidon (Neptune); for, as he was about
to sacrifice a bull to that god, two serpents
came up from the sea and destroyed him
and his two sons. This is the ancient
myth as illustrated in art, and the wonder
full work of the Rhodian sculptors now
lives in the Vatican.
DR.. Hollands creative fancy accepts this
myth, but discovers in the sublime work
a creation reaching far beyond it. LAGOON
is not simply the Trojan priest writing in
the folds ofthe serpents of Poseidon, accord
iug to the dreams of the old mythologies but
a majestic voice IS speaking She distant Gen.
turies," and coming down to us as a grand
embodiment of human life and human his
tory-a "wail of agonized humanity"
such as now suffers in the tolls of the
twin serpents, Sin and Suffering. 1t was
this which constituted the inspiration of
those grand old Rhodian sculptors. dlvinely
embodying this thought which outspcaks
itself in the wonderful marble, and which
| the author of The Prophecy" brings out
as a new creation of fancy. To the Profess
tant world this exposition of the ancient
statue, now standing under the shadows of
st. Peter, will commend itself as a new
voice and a new prophecy. After its long
sleep beneath the ruins of the Esquiline, it
now stands forth impersonating the dying
shrieks of martyred men as when the old
life of the Rome that slew the prophets
went out, and heather shrines came in,
with chains and dungeons, to supplant the
primitive faith.
That which constitutes poetry, in its
highest esthetic sense, is here brought out
| by the author. The delineation is not of
nature in her more commonplace moods
or phases, but in those imaginative color
ings that give a reality, as it were, beyond
the real /; as where, instead of cities Of
mere brick and mortar, distgured by the
smoke and dust of workshops, you see
uprise, as through a mirage, more wonder
fal cities still, dipped in the gold of sun
beam and mist, and standing out as neac
creations that altogether surpasses in
beauty the old. Such a result can only
be reached by the creative fancy of the
poet, whether it be realized in marble,
upon canvass, or in word-painting.
The poem concludes with the still-speak-
ing voice. Of the statue:
Thou, meantime,
Dds find thyself installed among the gcus
Here in the Vatican and thou, to-day,
Hast the same word for those who read thee
well
As when thou vast created. Rome has failed:
Humanity Ia writing in the tolls
or the old monsters as 1t writhed OF old,
And there is neither hope nor help In her.
Her priests. her shrines, her rites, her mum
meries,
Her pictures and her pageants, are as weak
To break the hold of Sin and Suffering
As those her reign displaced. Her iron hand
ShriVels the manhood it presumes to bless,
Drives to disgust or infidelity
The strong and free who dare to think and
judge,
And wins q kiss from coward lips alone,''
The Catholic world will sharply ~criticise
the poem, and endeavor to break the force
of its many polished utterances. But to
the student or lover of art there is a deeper
interest than ever attaching to this grand
old Rhodian marble. 1t is no longer q
meaningless myth, buta majestic prophecy,
portraying the unayailing struggle of a race,
scourged by sin and suffering, to crowd