Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1875-05-19
English criticism Of American
Poetry.

English criticism Of American
Poetry.
II is not strange that American
writers should occasionally manifest
impatience at the tone of English crit.
cism of American books. The Eng.
ish critics, or certain ones among them
seem to find IL impossible to be inter
ested in anything American that is not
peculiar" The same tendency is
shown in many of their best journals.
An American reads the columns OF
''items" from America with curiosity
and establishment. Can it be that all
these preposterous things have hap
pened under his very window, and he
has never heard a word about them
These absurdities are put forth, not as
abnormal cases, but as the news from
America. The fact is, that the true
islander is not interested in anything
outside, unless il is something that
may directly affect his own person and
property. 81 suppose it is really diff
cult, said a cockney writer to a New
York editor, of whom he was seeking
employment-''r really difficult for you
lllAglUt tON VIC
things IN America you know ]"
And so it is with the British critics.
They vary upon transatlantic imitation
of English models Just as if, because
we happen to live in New York instead
of Manchester. we we're to be cut of
from the literature into which We were
born. Must an American poet, who is
as ignorant of Indians, prairies, canons
eeysers, and the rest, as If he had been
brought up within the shadow. of st.
PauPs-must he be condemned because
he cannot express himself IN Choctaw,
or make his verse SAVIOR of the Yellow
stone?
such criticism is the offspring of a
dOubleignorance-a ignorance, namely
of American civilization, and of the
principles of poetry, to say nothing OF
the further ignorance Of American lit
erature. So far as imitation goes, we
claim the right to our own language.
10 its literature. We claim the right,
further. to initiate in Just the same
sense that Homer, and Dante, and
Shakespeare, and Byron, and Keats,
and Tennyson, and Swinburne, imlta-
ted. We do not find that even an Eng
lish critic calls Solomon to account for
initiating David. 1t might puzzle the
same critic TO select from a dozen Ital-
ian sonnets-none of which he had hap
pened to see before-tbose which were
written by Dante and those which were
from the pen of some friend or prede-
cessor of his. There are plays and
poems bound up with Shakespeare s
works. concerning whose authorship
many learned British critics are ex-
ceedingly pnzzled to-day, and will be,
no doubt, to the end of time.
Now have we brought our own swift
condemnation upon us We see the
serene smile that plays over the features
of our critical cousin at mention OF
these luminous names. But If any poet
of America desires to be tried by a
standard different from the standard
by which the greatest are judged, then
indeed, he deserves no mercy at the
hands of ''The Athen9urn." The ques-
ton as to any piece of poetic work is
simply this What beauty has 1T /;
what sincerity what worth of thought?
These are things the world is sure,
sooner or later, to find out.
Ii We were writing letter to yol ing
person in America who gave promise of
poetical accomplishment, We might say
something like this : Do not be greatly
troubled by this bugbear of imitation.
Nevertheless, if you find yourself in
clined to initiate any particular author,
fight against that tendency without re-
morse. Perhaps, instead OF fleeing his
books, a better way is to shave it out
with him." II Tennyson, for instance,
is your 6ete nOir, read him through and
through till whatever he has of mere
mannerism, whatever of affection, clogs
upon YOU. You viii instinctiVely avoid
his faults, and will have learned, as you
should learn, and as you have the right
TO learn, something of his exquisite
art. Above all, "loOk in your heart
and wrlte." If what you have written
in all earnestness and sincerity takes
no hold upon those of your fellows, to
whom you naturally turn for an audi
IF they, as the years go on, and
your skill and purpose, and lndivldu-
ality have freer play and development,
if they still pronounce your best
work nothing but echo and imitation
then you had better give it up. But re-
member that the tendency to initiate is
part of that sensitiveness to impress
sion which belongs to the poetic organ
ization. In a sense, all poetry is imita-
ton. The most original and individ-
ual of poets often begins with imitation,
and the greatest put the whole world of
life and literature under contribution.
If you have stuff in You, you will find
the talk about imitation growing less
and less, and by and by you may have
the fact of your own strong originality
well proved by the crowd of mere mock
ing-birds who are trying to sing your
songs. Look in your heart and write
and all the better for you, for your art,
and for your good name, if you find
there the land of your birth:
She that lifts up the manhood Of the poor.
She OF the open soul and open door,
With room about her hearth for all mankind
-,Scri5nCr'S MOnthLy.