The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1875-11-06
18 LAFAYETTE PLACE,
Ork CITY. Oct. 81. 1875.

THE SHIP IN THE DESERT. By Joaquin Miller.
Published by Roberts Brothers, Boston. For sale
by Loring, Short g. Harmon.
1t is with genuine pleasure that those who
have built many hopes upon Mr.. Miller's work
will recognize in his latest poem, steady ad-
vance upon his previous writing, while his
strong, original traits remain unchanged. Mr..
Miller was at one time precisely where no crit.
ic could predict with any degree of certainty
his future. His talent was undeniable; there
was the "simplicity, sensuousness, and pas
sion" which Milton declared to be the first ele-
ments of poetry; there was broad manner of
treatment, that was akin to the superb hyper
oole of Natures work in the canons and sier-
ras; there were roughnesses, failures of skill,
faults of style; in the midst of grand and viv-
id descriptions of scenery were introduced the
most conventional types of unconventionality;
but throughout all these contrasting traits was
the genuine touch Of the born poet. Two ways
lay before him-to repeat and emphasize his
peculiarties, or to soften and harmonize them.
He has chosen the latter path, and the result
is fortunate one. In some of his recent prose
writing in the form of journalistic letters, Mr..
Miller has given evidence of quick sense of
bumor, which will be powerful aid to him in
distinguishing between passion and bombast, q
distinction which at first he did not always
make. The warm, over-vivi1 coloring of his
younger work has been little toned down;
and the too redundant melody of his verse has
been refined into natural, rich effects which
not seldom rival in their untaught beauty the
music of Tennyson's or Morris verse, the last
result of elaborate culture In 'The Ship in the
Desert are especially notable the large pro
portions, strong color and melody, and abso
Lutte refinement of thought Wild as some
deep canon, strong as the gray rocks strewn by
s'orms about 1.-THE poem is pure as the ar
Toyo that trickles, slender thread of water
through the mighty chasm-it is Innocent as
chld's song. The plot is slight and serves
more as point d'appui for the scenic work,
than as the real interest of the poem. 10 his
dedication ot the book to his parents, Mr.. Mil.
Ter expressly says that it was with the desire to
honor the West. to sing the new land of mys-
terry, that he has writer, and that the narra-
tive form has been adopted to please ',the world
that will have its way, and like spoiled child,
still demands tale" The opening of the DO.
em is original and effective. To, the edge Of
the great western desert, ride in turn strong
men who peer out into its vastness from the
fringe of sagebush at its border, and terrified
as if a spectre followed, ride away from the
fearful place. A dried-up sea. with its strange
treasures laid bare, masts of a ship from DO
meath whose keelthe waters had shrunk ages
before-who knows anything of its mystery? A
desert whose secret is so old that not even q
sphinx is left to guard it. A sea whose last
eb5 was back to the early twilight of the world.
Up the river, toward this land of Arizona come
two toats, pursued and pursuing. The de-
scrptons of old Morgan and his daughter Ina
are very striking and in Mr.. Miller's best vain {:
"a grand old Neptune in the PROV.
Gray haired, and white with touch of time,
Yet strong as in his middle prime;
grizzled king, see him now,
With beard as blown by wind Of seas
And wild and white as white seas storm,
Stand up, turn suddenly, look back
Along the low boats wrink,ed track,
Then told his mantle round form
And SO sit silently
%*%
only saw her as she passed
A great, sad beauty in whose eyes
Lay all the loves OF Paradise.
Her mouth! twas Egypt's mouth Of old,
Push'd out and pouting full and bold
With SIMPLE beauty where she sat.
Why, you had said, on seeing her,
This creature comes from out the dim
Far centuries, beyond the rim
OF times remotesl reach or stir.
Mr. Miller's talent is ID some respects akin
to the spirit of antique poetry. The untried
West, the constant phenomenal aspects of all
about him, gave to his mind the simple, unrea-
soning joy in beauty, the alad acceptance of emo
ton the familiarity with nature face to face
with no distraetine human speculation between
that modern sophisticated verse SO often lacks
1t is not at all Inconsistent with this, that he
SO readily adopts the thoughts and images oil
! the old world and mingles them with those Of