The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1876-02-17
senator conkling and His Poets.

oOOA do ~ hppIiSeu VI Iuc luCIS.
Senator Conkling and His Poets.
Silence We wolves, while Ralph to Cynthia howIs
And makes night hideous. Answer him, ye owls.
If we have received one set of verses claim
ing to present correct rhyme for Conkling
we have received five hundred. Never did
we know that America had so many bad
poets, though we read the magazines regu-
larly. The extraordinary galvanic, gutta
percha contortions into which this battalion
of poets twist the English language excel the
most ingenious efforts of Tom Hood or Bar
ham. Heaven knows whether it be true that
poets are born, not made; but if it is true it
would be better for mankind if some of them
had been stillborn. Still, they are welcome.
1t is sometimes necessary to sacrifice two or
three muses. for the good of the world, and if
these rhymes are ruinous to literature they
may be of service to Mr.. Conkling.
The eminent Senator should be proud of
the interest taken in his name 1t is an I'M
blemished title, notwithstanding that the
legion of poets are in danger of making it as
odious as the word occupy" which Doll
Tearsheet declared was an excellent good
word before it was ill-assorted. His name is
illustrious enough, but with what unheard
of words is it not assorted now But this
is not the fault of the poets so much as of
the language. English, we begin to appre-
bend, is too poor a tongue for such distin-
guished cognomen. But the poets are doing
their best to invent phrases which shall meet
ha IF oh
they fail, no doubt we shall have rhymes
from the French, Spanish, Italian, Russian,
Slavonic and all the dialects of the world.
1t is high compliment to any one to have
the public take such deep interest in his
name, and Grant may well be envious of
such Aattering solicitude.
Out of the vast pile of rhymes we have
received we can only print a few, taken at
random. The first is the following =
Republicans with democrats a fair sprinkling
Give us for President Roscoe Conkiing.
The author writes, 'sThe above is the best
1 can do" and we believe him. We hope,
however, that he will continue to write and
in time become quite a Byron. Here is
another extraordinary couplet -
II the proof OF pudding is chawing a dumpling
For next President echo says Conkling
The only objection we can make to this is
that it is not rhyme, but blank verse, and
in that respect alone Miltonic. We trust
the young poet will favor us again. Milton
himself was at one time of life incapable of
writing better. Another more accurate
rhymester sends this =
AS David the Philistne smote with a strong sling,
nallf oQqP al vail do VIII mr. GOnkl linz
Then we are honored with another poet,
who calls himself can Infant, which is new
evidence Of the Scriptual doctrine that out
of the mouths of babes and stockings shall
be brought forth praise
s J. Tilden has no chance
With such a strong man Conkling
Blaine, Of Maine will have to dance
To get bite from the dumping
CHoRus-To get bite from the dumping
Another poet rhymes Conkling with
s'inkling," but we are obliged to decline
his ode. Here is one which is epigram-
matte -
AS "Lon the poor Indian in war paint he 1lcs
And does to his Ratchet aud thong cling
We don't think Ulysses would open his eyes,
To wink much in favor Of Conkling
And so we might continue to quote in
definitely, but prefer to end with the fol-
lowing stanzas, which really do contain
correct rhymes although they are some
what forced. One is called IA Wild Goose
Song -
In scrrlcd ranks on high they n.y.
With their harmonious honkng,
ProcIaiming with delightful cry
| The name OF Roscoe Conkling.
It is rather strange that another poet
should have hit upon the same rhyme, but
the application is more satirical:-
Honkl honk says the goose as she leaves her nest,
To provide for the little honkling,
| Bur her aght Is nAught TO the Wild goose chase
OF Senator Roscoe Conkling
The verb ''honkling" is permissible, but
the noun is not to be found in any work on
natural history that we know Of We trust
that Senator Conkling will take into consid.
Grafton our respectful suggestion that he
should offer prize for the best rhyme, fol
we really think these poets ought to b
encouraged. Our correspondent "Unter
rifed," gives some good advice, and it nigh