New-York tribune., 1877-05-15
FTTZGREEAE HALLECK.

author will receive the honor of Il cOmmemO-
ratiyc statue. Busts, shafts, or tablets have
been erected TO others of the guild of letters,
but Fitz-Grceno Halleck is the first to he
monumcntally treated rs the equal Of states
men, diyincs, and inventors. This distinction
is due, less to the intrinsic quality of his
achievement as q poet, than 10 the mchanglng
personal regard which he enjoyed for hall
century, and to the peculiar place which he
occupies in the history Oi American Literature.
lie was not Only ono OF the five mcn-the
others IT, the order OF their birth, being IRVING
Dana, Cooper, and Bryant--whO founded that
Literature and gave 1t honor throughout the
world but he holds the same relation to It's
poetry as Irving does to its prose: that Is, he
first gave it permanent popularity.
Two generations have passed since lIallcck
began to Ice fresh, delightful, and stimulating
intellectual force and no reader Oi to-day can
fairly estimate the service be rendered, with
out intimate knowledge of that earlier day
when each of his poems was at once surprise
and prophecy After the rcsoundng dulIness
of Barlow and Dwight, and the coarse imita-
tive satire of TrumbulI, the fancy delicate
IRONY and maccustOmcd mcOd0Us quality Of
the "CroakeF poems fell Ike sudden mamma
upon the desert of American letters. Dana,
WHO was three years older, and Bryant, who
was four years younger than ilalleck, had then
hc,un TO write, il Is true hut 'he former hau
published no poems, ard the latter only -
grave and grand "ThanatOpsjS." Hallcck AMI
Drake had the field to Themselves they dcal
chiefly with local matters and cphemcral inter
csts. yet there was something in their per
formanco so awakening aud inspiring that
their publisher once received fifteen limitations
in single day! Ialle,k's Fanny published
in 1919, was so popular tbat the publisher
gave him 800 TO add fifty stan1as 10 new
edition. This blending OF hUmor with gentle
sentiment and fine descriptive poetry, embodied
in mctrical forms of great ilucncy and melody,
was something new in thu country, and it
antcdatcd 10y several years the similar work OF
pracd, in England.
Hallcck's literary activity il included within
a period Of ten years. Except II Red Jacket"
all the poems 10y which he viii be remembered
were written before 1879: he ceased, in the
PRIME OF his powers, and with forty years o.
ms life still before him. While retaining "a
generous interest in the productions of later
authors, he seemed TO have entirely lost the
need Of pOatical expression, on to have been
discouraged Ivy finding himself fallen upon
times with which hc felt no genuine sympathy.
He was OF the school Of Scott, Campbell, and
Moore, aud its only American representative.
Hence it is perhaps not singular that, after the
death OF Byron and Scou and the silence of
Rogers, Moore, and Campbell; when the rrac-
tIou against all of these had much diminished
their former victorious popularity, Ind the stars
Of Colcriigc, Wordsworth, and Keats We're
rising mt last,-ilallcck should have sarmScd
that the taste of his old audience wa3 not re
ncwcd in their children. llc was tro proud 10
bctray the least scns:ivou,ss on this poiut--if,
indeed, be bad any: his life WAS M noble con-
trast to that of those authors whose later years
are scared by attributng natural failure 30 The
pcrvcrse miscouccption Of readers or thc malice
of critics.
In his personal opinions and habits Iiailccll
also belonged 10 the Past J., is only ten years
since his massive, distinguished head, and The
erect, d,gIicd carriage ci his form, were seen,
from time to time, on Broadway; and no one
could pass him without feeling thc m0mcntlry
contact Of another age. Although the descend
ant Of Pilgrim family (and from Eliot the
Apostle Of the Indians Oh the mothers siic),
ne inherited the roya.ist sympathies of his
father, who acted as il British commsslry
during the Revolutionary War. He had no
faith in the republican foIm of government
hc WAS profoundly antagOnsiic 10 every move
meut to which the epiJhct OF "progrcs,n was
attachcd aud there was much in the literature
of our generation which he found almost rs
iucomprchensible es new language. The
Iatl4r half of MS life Was an pnpbvnuigfn IIa
rcprcsentcd the views, the tastes, the feelings,
of a century ago; tut he also represented the
simple inboru TRUTH the lofty sentiment of
honor, the line antique courtesy Of The Gem
tleman of that period In these respects he
needed 10 element of progress, for our day
could teach him nothing better.
Now and then an attempt is made TO dis
paiagc Ilalcck's services 10 our literature. Ills
best defense will be found in the memory of
the people, who ask fOI no criticism when
they know what they like. For fifty years
they have read and recited "Nlarc0 Bozzars,r
Burns aud " Red Jacket and they will
continue to do 80 for fifty years to come
"What young men are sure to lke,n said a
great poet, "cannot fail to live; for there will
always lie young men in the world" Add
"Alnwlck Castle" Connecticut" and the
! lyric rosebud dropped on the grave of Drake,
and we have six universally known and per-
manent poems of llalleck,-as many as Gray
or Collins gave to the English people. 1t
! doubles our gratitude to consider when, and
| into what comparative wilderness, he sang