New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1875-07-30
to take a more charitable view Of the Presi-
dents efforts for reform
CENTENNIAL POETRY.

~
pcrbons il il too early to estimate the addi-
fin, which the inspiration Of these Centennial
DAYS will make to poetry distinctivelv Ameri-
can As we count one hundred years,
the temptation to greet them III the oiu
conventional strain Of everyday verse Is over,
powered by the grandeur OF the event. III"
there is something in the air when keeps .no
small singers quiet; there Is no demand Iof 'ho
conceted or the pretty, for feeble imitation of
rondos flowing trippingly on the tongue. Inc
weaver of stanzas who has been writing as
nearly as he could like Tennyson or Browning
or Swinburne, finds this school OF melody amen
to the great historic hour, and makes way 1or
those who can commemorate 1t with que
sobriety and insight. The amorous, the Dac-
chanalan, the miniature painters OF nature
the players of pretty tunes, the vOtaries OF the
protcs1ue stand aside and listen with the rest
70 the few great voices which can fifty sing Oh
peoples past and present and future, and
c,obe with metrical grace and attraction those
sober truths which separate real history from
legend and romance.
Coucedng that it is the human soul which
is alone pclpetuated, and that empires, dynaS-
ties, republics. conquests, are merely It's tell-
porary accidents, tho true inspiration or the
noct is to be found in mans intellectual ana
moral vicissitudes. All the rest is picture
this alone is real and suryivinS-thlS alone
gives value and conference to the fine scene, to
tho great action, to all which makes
the epic or the lyrical. Mr.. Lowell
sings, with sobriety which is itself
rapture, of tho greatness OF Wash
ington, and rs lie does so, all that
is hackneyed in our memory OF the
hero flies from the mind, and the man stands
before us in statuesQue simplicity, only the i'm
mortal of him. the immovably august" the
"graye strength the impenetrable justice"
the "purc light remaining. AS VIC gaze upon
this apothcoss, so utterly true and natural,
the mcrrymakcrs give over their games the
testers are dumb, and the shallow lapse into
quiet reverence. The lines of the poet hard
and cold as they may at first seem, grow warm
and lambant. and we comprehend the fincness OF
thc cold which does not glitter. No ditlyram-
bic, no Alcaic verse, no fine frenzy cOulu move
us so much as these stately meters, when
carry fire in their very friSidity. 1t was III
something of this strain that Mr. Bryant sang
80 many years ago, also in Cambridge, the
story OF "The Ages and declared that here
~ the free spirit Of mankind at length mad
" thro,yn its last letters Off" We are willing
TO believe that this political idealism is, after
all, dearcr to the aggregate American mind
than enormous territory or unprecedented
opulence or marked military success. 1t
il dimmcd by many vices; it is qualified
by small vanitics there is more than trace
in it of cgoism and unworthy Jealousy; yet we
may credit its existence and its influence when
the obscurest orator in the Obscurest hamlet
stops in his rush of rhetoric to say something
of what Liberty has done and will do for the
mind and heart and soul of man. There is
poetry in these distractions which will never
be uttered flower of which honest and self
devoted citizenship will be the fruit. Our
Centennial breeds no cGrmOgnocs-we sing, but
We do not dance.