New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1873-09-23

"Fyery Man His Own Poet is the title Of ieu
desprit recently published in Oxford. 1t contains
directions for manufacturing poetry a Ia Brown
ing Tennys0n or Swnburne, but these it is need
less for us to repeat. There is nothing iii this
mania for literary imitation. If we go no further
back than the reign of Queen Anne, we find a'regu
lar school-regular in every sense of the word
measuring off miles of the Pope ten-syllabe verse,
and another equally devoted to the easy jingle" of
Prior or Swift. Then came Sir Walter Scett with
his fatal facility" verse, at which every one from
Byron to Sotheby tried his hand and harp. Poetry
is a musical art, and music is mainly an initiative
faculty. The greatest singers have manner which
the smaller singers may catch. Phillips, who wrote
1.-THE Splendid Shilling" was more like Milton than
Milton himself just as Swift said of Blackmore, that
"Sternhold himself he out-Sternholded." Almost all
young bards write from the recollection of what has
pleased them in others. We could mention one dis
tinguIshed American poet who had three or four
borrowed manners before he found one of his own
Byron is not bard to be initiated generally, but
he once set good example, for he mentions in his
diary that having written a hundred lines, he
burned them; and 4" find" he said, the pleasure
of burning to be greater than the pleasure of print
ing" Here is something for young people to think
of seriously. Let every boy or girl ask: If had
not read Tennyson or Swinburne, would 1 have
written this at any rate, written it in this way ~
The indulgence of publication is harmless if it
be afforded, and if it does not seduce from more
rational industry but shall always consider the
GOODNESS with which the booksellers receive new
candidates for poetical fame Is eminently whole
some.
Evansville, Indiana, doth not seem a local habta-
ton for Malvolio. but therein hath Malvoo
taiply appeared. His pleasant companions full of
boyhoods glee did most neatly counterfeit for his
benefit letter from young heiress declaring that
his manly bearing had captivated her heart He
read and knowing well his perfection, rs NAL
volio should, he believed Whether he Immediately
appeared strange. stout, in yellow stockings, and
attred himself in his good clothes, and went TO call
at the ancestral halls wherein the Lady Olivia re-
sided with her father and mother. Not approaching
his devotion nor his smiles and utterly unmoved by
tho good clothes that fair damsel instantly ordered
him out of the house. Merely renaTkng the
uncertainty of human affairs, he meekly retired.
Here is a Caucasian newspaper with vengeance.
The birmingham Ala Necs says: This is a white
mans paper, edited bya white man, printed by
white man, paid for by white men. supported by
white men, and il will support for Office who
refuses to stand squarely upon the platform that
this is a white mans country and a heritage to him
and his children forever" How such moral albino
as this can have anything % do with printers ink
passes our comprehension. He should contout him.
self with supplying his customers with white sheets
Of papes.