The Portland daily press., 1875-10-23
Recent Publications.


For sale by Bailey & Noyes.
Mr. Stedman's work will be at once recog.
nized as valuable, admirable and effective ad-
dtion to critical literature. 1t is of interest and
worth to poets and to the public, to those whose
delight in poetry is entirely spontaneous, ard
to those whose natural inclination toward it
has been developed by spscial technical prac-
tice and systematic study of the expressional
structure into which thought must be crystal
lized to become poetry. The close study which
Mr.. Stedman shows that he has made of the
various epochs and schools of poetry; of the
broad historic cycles wherein its conditions are,
to great degree, repeated of its forms and
the influences, exterior or intrinsic, which have
moulded it into these forms; of the part which
the great leaders of the poet-choir have had in
the development of their art; and, last
not least, the generous, free enthusiasm with
which he accords praise to the noble songs that
have been sung, and recognizes at their just
value tie circumstances which hindered or
aided the singers-all prove Mr. Stedman to be
a critic by grace of nature. And such criticism
as his, implies also the creative gift He is
poet, and so has carefully and understandingly
appreciated the methods of his great predeces-
sors and contemporaries; and the critical and
artistic elements of his mind combine to rem
der his work nobly imaginative and just. He
considers the Victorian era to be one of transit.
ton, and as yet of renaissance rather than of
creation-a this tendency which he notices
in poetry is equally to be in the other arts,
for musicians of to-day belong in reality to the
past or to the future-to the art-forms, solid and
sincere, of Bach and the early contra puntal
school, to the processes, at present experiment
al and even chaotic,of new musical speech. In
painting, we see the severe outlines and pure
colors Of the early Italian school-a method
which clique of panter-poets also transfer to
their verse. This tendency cannot be called
retrogressive-it is simply tho active desire to
take away the mistakes which have been made
and repeated in art, and to return to simple
and pure forms from which a new start may be
taken. Mr.. Stedman believes, and develops
his thought in very noble chapter entitled
THE Period'-that from the materialism of
the present time, its science that conflicts with
some of the traditions Of poetry, as of religion,
while it in reality supports and enarges the
known field of both-will be obtained lasting
and beneficial results. At present the poets
are with signing sent'' away from the vague
world of wonders which was their peculiar
province. In earlier times the poet was the
prophet, the singer the seer; but to-day Science
proves everything; measures and analyses the
light of the sun; searches out the source of the
mysterious river. No dim region of shadow is
left to the singer, no thcket to the nightingale.
Cup to Coleridge's time therefore," Gays Mr..
Stedman, 'his definition of poetry, that it is
the antithess of science, was true as far as it
extended. Let us see how the ideals of an
imaginative primitive race differ from those of
the children of knowledge who make up our
later generations Here follows description,
brilliant and purely poetic, of Guido's Aurora.
the art-form in which the great universal myth
of Sun and Dawn appeared to the joyous
Greek nature, a fresco filled with abounding
life, harmony OF outline and sense of delight
sOur own time,' he adds $50 eminently scien-
tiic, so devoted to investigation of universal
truth has found such wonders in force and mat
ter that the poetic bearing of their phenomena
has seemed of transient worth. To
US the Sun is material, flaming orb, round
which revolves this dark, inferior planet, sub
ject to central and centrifugal forces. We
know that nc celestial flowers hestrew his ap
parent pathway: that all this irrdescencs is but
the refraction of light through the mists of the
upper skies. Let me in advance disavow re-
gret for the present, or desire to recall the past
I simply recognize a condition which was in
evitable, and in the order of growth to better
things" 1t is this hopeful and farseeing trait
of Mr.. Stedman's mind that marks him as tie
true poet who perceives through the shadows
"a song too loud for the lark,
A light too bright for star"
He believes that familiarity with the mar
vels of scientific discovery will enable poetry
to keep pace with the strong march of knowl-
edge; that the sunlit truths of creation will
take on the beauty of fable, without its quality
of perishableness. The truest poet of the time
is he, according to Mr.. Stedman, who best
knows and interprets that time.
So much of the writer's claim to respectful
and admiring attention is founded upon the in
troductoIy chapters of his book, as showing
the unprejudieed, generous manner in which
he regards his art and fellow artists; his gen.
timely modest yet self-respectiDg position as
poet and critic-that it has seemed appropriate
to devote large part of the present notice to
the consideration of the general conditions,
been formed.
In the chapters upon the several poets whom
he considers leaders of the choral song, bis
sympathetic nature, apprecatiye of all the for
tunate traits If thought or form, OF all the in
huences Of sun or shadow that went to the
making of the poets, and his very Gear and
well-considered technical views of verse, as an
art, give great value and power to his criticism.
Occasionally he is led by generous enthusiasm
to little over-praise, as ir the case of Mrs.
Browning of Landor, or of Tennyson; but
these are occasional phrases only, and affect
very little the tone of the work as whole. The
chapter upon Tennyson and Theocrtus is of
marked interest; and the comparison of the
Aexandrian age with the Victorian is strong
point. in favor of Mr.. Stedman's theory of wide
poetic cycles. Some of the parallel passages,
however. given as examples of the initiative
resemblance between Tennyson and his early
predecessor, appear little forced, containing
such natural poetic images as would occur to
the idyllic poet ard be as original in one cen.
tury as in another. 1t has been the misfortune
of TennysoD, as of many another artist of po-
etry, painting or music, to be admired for those
traits which were precisely not his best. AT
ter a while, the world wearies of them, and re-
fuses to recognize the genuine bsauty that un-
derlies these ornaments of mannerism. Mr.
-Stedman believes Tenpyson to be the represen-
tatve poet, all things considered, of his time
and country: and rejoices that to his successes
heretofore chiefly lyric and dyllic he has
added his fine drama Queen Mary.
The rapid, vigorous, and realistic tendency
of the age seems to demand return to the
drama-and yet is Encouragement to the
dramatst. All this Mr.. Stedman notes, as
we'll as the repression of emotional signs, tfe
contempt for expression beyond feeling, that
characterize this eminently practical era. 1t is
indeed 10 journalism that the drama of to-day
exists. The wires that flash intelligence of all
deeds, good or bad, across the land-supply
endless dramatic material The active drama
of journalism defies the set unites. 1t seems
incomplete because Infinite. Its drdadtis per-
some include the world. Over millions of its
actors the great green curtain of the grass has
fallen,-but the play goes on. 1t is tragedy
comedy, farce, imposing spectacle by turns
What wonder that we are impatient of the