Wilmington daily commercial., 1875-11-23
Rayard TayIor's New yOIum e-What
q Reviewer NOtes IN IL.

Reviewing Bayard Taylor's recent volume of
poetry, Appleton's Journals somewhat surprised
to find that /" the tone of the poems is alternate
ly one Of remonstrance and defiance" and
ttha the poet evidently frets under the re-
straints and limitations Of unsympathetic and
uncongenisl surroundings" This to the Jour
nal is unexpected, because it d" had always
supposed that his poetry took much of its
interest, as it certainly does much OF its
popularity from it's falling in with the time-from
its drawing it's inspiration, its subjects, and its
sentiments from the prevailing tastes and feel
ings Of his audience"
Looking carefully over the volume, it is GER
tainly not surprising that the attention of the
reviewer, as Of the reader, should be challenged
by the expression on many pages of the poets
remonstrances against certain mysterious
Something which seems to cloud his near hori-
zon. From the opening "Proem -omitting the
lines "Ad Amicos," in which there is all the
warmth OF the brightest October day-to the end
OF the "Lyrics," there occurs at intervals this
fret against some intangible difference of views.
As these poems are but now collected,
though several years have passed since the orr
ginal publication Of some of them, it is fair to
thought, disown the sentiment with which we
find them 30 Marked and it is neither unfair
nor offensive to his purpose to refer to the ex-
PLANTATION why Mr. Taylor, for several years past,
has thus colored considerable part OF his poet
ry. To many of our readers, quite familiar
with the circumstances, it is no news to say that
the poet has found existing about his home at
Kennett Square code of ideas and opinions
which have seemed to him narrow, rigid, and
ropressive. To the cosmopolitan culture which
his many and wide rambles have naturally given,
he has added some of the tastes and habits of
the German people, among whom he has had
much Of his home life during the last few years.
In many respects, including two or three
that are essential, the social and moral theories
which distinguish the German civilization are
distinctly opposed to those of many Americans,
and especially to those which pre- dominate in
Southern Chester county. spirit which the
Germans call Puritanism has been and is
powerful in the United States, and against it the
opinions OF. .theGerman people are everywhere op-
posed with directness and vehemence that can
hardly be exaggerated. They cannot under
stand the asceticism which banishes the beer
cup and the wine fisgon, and such theories as
those Of "womans emancipation, &C., &c are
to them either incomprehensble or monstrous.
Something of this feeling the poet shares, but
he loves, also, an artist does, the warmer col
orings of life, in all it's phases he prefers the
picturesque to tho prim, the luxuriant to the ex-
act, and he answers to many suggestions from
his neighbors that
Life is real life is earnest"
in the words Of his own creation, Penn Cabin :
'The world" ne says, :" is all aglow
With beauty, bliss, and good"
To be brief, the reformatory enthusiasms
which characterize the country around Kennett
Square, and which find utterance annually at
Longwood, irritate the poet, and only excite his
muse to rebellion. His residence at "Cedar-
croft" though in the midst of a familiar people,
has not been altogether an Arcadian experience,
for, as the poet thinks =
They, content with the glow OF carefully tenn.
pered twilight,