The anti-monopolist. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1874-1878, 1875-08-23

BALLAD PoErRY.-The ballad is lyrical
narrative. and the tale told in it, sometimes
humorous and lively, but far oftener tragi-
cal, is of direct character, and appeals to
| popular sentiment. The singer, or the re-
| otter land we must remember that all the
old ballads we're recited or sung long years
before they appeared in print), deals with
the primary feelings of the race, with the
passions. hopes and fears in which all can,
more or less, sympathize. Everybody can
understand a ballad, and everybody whose
taste has not been perverted by training in
a false school will enjoy 1t. The roughness
and coarseness-and, worse still, the repe-
tition and prolxity, sins common to ballad
monpers-will be tolerated for the sake OF
the genuine feeling of the singer. The old
ballad is the simplest style of poetry We
nossess. and the charm of it to modern ears
lies in its directness, its pathos, lis arch
ouaintness of expression, In the occasional
sweetness of the music, in the manly
strength of the thought. It has been said
that the ballad is the true spring head OF
history; with greater truth it may be SAID
that it is the source from which spring the
drama and the epic and it is impossible TO
study the works OF the great British poets
,, without seeing how much they stand in
!, debted to their predecessors, the balladists.
;, Il is curious to note how recently the bal
lads of which we are now so proud came t.
! be regarded as things Of worth that merited
preservation in a printed form. Many o.
6 the ballads Of Denmark were collected to
: wards the close of the sixteenth century
:, the larger number Of British ballads hvet
> on without the security Of print until thu
= middle of the eighteenth century. Tha
:. was the age of brilliant satire, Of tow
,, poetry written By town wits; an age II
:. which polish of expression and an epigram
- matte turn of thought were esteemed NOR
:. highly than the imprisoned utterance q
natural feeling The literary fare provide
! was so richly spiced and go daintily serve
= that men turned with Indifference, or eve
~ with disgust, from homely food served upo
;. nlain ,renchers Addison, whose sagacit
4. preserved him Excepting in his own poetry
!, from the critical errors of the period, vel
l. tured indeed TO comment on and to prsi.
~ the fine ballads Of Chevy Chase and Il
30 babes in the Wood and got laughed
=, for his pains DR.. johnson, who at lat
ON period of the century gave laws to u
W poetasters of the age, spared NO opportunit
~ a. Boswell tells US. to decry the old b
lads generally. Bishop Percy, betwe
whom and johnson. by the way, there
!" ever q warm friendship, had too fine Pc
ae, cepsion of the charm Of ballad poetry
US have his faith greatly injured by the Gu
'sa rent belief; but there are indications II
gn n. even Percy. exquisite though his taste VI
II did sometimes yield to the pressure Of
=. =. critical opponents. Nevertheless the wo
ou' done by Percy is of inestimable value
ava ava only did he himself possess 2 genius
nsu this kind Of poetry superior in Wordswort
ne judgment to that Of any other man
ass whom in modern times it has been Gu
rue rne waited, but he was the first to bring fogeil
ne in a readable form the finest of our Brit
! u ballads The result was far more splen
IN than Percy could have anticipated slo
play @ - p-;,;.h -.os.-~ and the effec,
US the work upon Coleridge, Wordsworth
rog- ss..;.. - en- ps-r~ their poesical fat
l-CornAM Haga-ine-