New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1876-04-12
AMERICAN ~. ENGLISH CRITICISM.

Now that the senseless outcry made IN En-
| gland on behalf of an American author ac-
companied as it was with vulgar insult OF all
other and purer representatives OF our lltcra-
ture, has provoked protest even there, we
may appropriately present q clearer eXplana-
ton of the phenomenon than has yet been
given OH either side of the Atlantic Scarcely
| fifty wears have elapsed since the first gener-
alton of American authors was cOntemptuously
| ignored in England at present cries of wonder
and enthusiasm greet the youngest and most
extravagant of our writers, even before some
of them have acquired any distinct recognition
at home. We, who are familiar with an authors
material, are not allowed time to decide
whether he has used it in accordance with tho
best laws of his art; we are accused OF blind
ness or GOODNESS, if we do not directly fall
upon orr knees beside our English friends and
thank heaven as fervently as they.
We may be pardOned for referring once
more to Mr. Walt Whitman's case, since it
has been dragged into such prominence Here
he was first known as "Walter Whitman"
writer of conventional stories and poems
mostly in rhyme. Failing to achieve literary
distinction he made bold and IN one sensea
successful experiment. He published work
in which we recognized three separate ele-
ments, curiously blended by his strong ndi-
vduaity. There was the old Greek reverence
for the human body and delight in all its
functions; there was strong reflection Oh
Emerson's democratic philosophy; and finally
there was the slang. cOarsencss and aggressive
insouciance of the New-YOrk Bowory boy. it
was chaos, pierced here and there by splen-
did phrases We acknowledged the rudi-
mentary germs, but we could not find the de-
vcloped poetic Intelligence it was perhaps
genius. but about three generations in advance
of birth. 1t aroused much the same interest
in the reader rs if he had lifted the lid of the
authors brain, and were watching the iatters
thoughts, impulses and appetites seething and
breaking like bubbles in caldron. 1t was
similar in character to the experiment when
Rousseau nsincerey tried,-but not during
his life. Any man who frees his manure from
its last reserve and exhibits himself wholly to
his fellow-mcn, will never lack certain num-
Der of ardent admirers He speaks for all i'm
pulses which have not learned the discipline
of restraint, yet lack the courage to express
themselves. In England, where restraint is the
severe and ever-watchful principle OF Society,
such "barbarc yawp" sounded over the
roofs of the world must have been startling but
not wholly unwelcome.
I'm this country, however, we cannot feel
the same necessity for the uttcrance. Ii is
typical of Il condition from which most men
of earnest intelligence among Ills are trying TO
escape. We have enough, and more than
enough, of unrcso!ved elements In our
American life We crave the attainment
of that harmony in literary achievement
which will restore to us the lost bless
ing of reposc. In England, we are forced
to assume, the opposite process has been going
OH. The English brain, blds6 with respectable
proprieties of utterance, surfcited with decor
Gus elegance of style, il startled into new
and refreshing sense of life by intellectual pie
nomena which may amusc us for while by their
very cytrayagance but are tOlcrably sure to
tire us in the end. since we never escape
their weaker echoes The general ignorance,
in England, of the crude American material used
by our authors, is something astonishing. Most
of the critics there may be likencd to that
green tourist who came to New-York expect
ing to hunt bears and buiialoes in lloboken.
When an American poet sings of his native
clover, robins, larks, elms and wild roses. he
is Immediately accused of copying English
models. "Why," asked The Fortnghhy Reriew
few years ago, does he not sing of prairie
"dogs and buflalo-grass ~ With so many
degrees of latitude, such large lakes, such long
and 80 very muddy rivers, why do we Rot
inaugurate national literature OF grand, pecu-
liar, and surprising forms
Thus it happens that nothing is too grotcsque,
nothing too lawlcss, nothing too coarse for
the overlooked palates of large class of En-
glsh authors and readers. They are so tired Of
t-house peaches and grapes, that they find
strange delight in the quicker of the unripe
persimmOn. An American poem, to be enjoy
able to them, must be well peppered with
bloody and burning adjcctivcs. They place the
simulated savagery of Joaquin Miller beside
| the pure and serene muse of LOngfellOw. Poe
is exalted to the rank of leader and path
finder; Mr.. Charles Reade calls Il humorist
whose work has almost vanished from our
comic literature, "Artcmus the Delicious"
and now Mr. Buchanan halls Whitman in
terms fitting to no one less than Homer and
! Moses combined. 1t was the search for n new
flavor which determined the character of Nor
ris's and Rossett's poetry; and we cannot
therefore withhold certain degree of sympa-
thy from Mr.. Buchanan, who, after half a dozen
different and equally desperate attempts, has
not yet been successful.
Our American taste in literature may posi-
sibly be immature, but it is still healthy. We
enjoy the realism of Judd's Margaret" in
spite of its fantastic style; we read with salts
faction the earliest, and still the best, of our
comic writer's, Lieut.. Derby ("John Phgnix"O,
whom the English do not seem to know at
all; we recognize the genius of Bret Harte