Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1879-11-10
CHARACTERISTICS OF BAYARD
TAYLOR.

| u "A
Mr.. Stedman, for years the friend of
Taylor, writes as follows of him in
paper in ,ScaSbner for November, chiefly
devoted to critical analysis of poetry
and literary career:
His memory was prodigious. Moth
ing that he learned was forgotten, and
he learned without effort. After sim
gle reading he knew poem by heart,
and could repeat whole pages of his fav-
orite authors; and there was little that
he did not read or see. His perception
of externals was alert and true; but he
did not so readily catch by intuition the
thoughts and feelings of those about
him. He had fine sense of form and
seemed natural artist. His linguistic
powers were we'll known. He taught
himself something Of the classical texts,
and was more infused with the antique
sentiment than many learned Theban.
He quickly caught the passwords and
phrases of any language, Semitic or Ar
yan, wherever he journeyed. German
he mastered, wrote in, thought in; it
became so much like native tongue
with him as to refute the theory that
one gains of new language only SO
much as he loses of his own. His de-
sire for knowledge was constant, and
his professional training made him rap
idly acquainted with the meaning and
scope of new work or movement that
came within his view.
His personal traits were no less ad-
mirable. To think of him is to recall a
person larger in make and magnanimity
than the common sort; man of inde-
scribable buoyancy. hopefulness, sweet
ness of temper,-reverent, loyal, shrink
ing from contention yet ready to do
battle for a principle or in the just
cause of friend; a patriot and lover of
his kind, stainless in morals, and of an
honesty SO pure and simple that he
could not be surprised into an untruth
or the commission of a mean and un-
worthy act. His open delight over any
work of his own that pleased him was
the reverse of egotism, yet often misun-
derstood by those who slightly knew
him. He was without jealousy, though
sometimes rufied by the prosperity of
quacks and pretenders, and took as
much pleasure in the legitimate success
of others as in his own. Yet his person
al amu,urun auu ASPIRATION were very
great, vuly oqualOu ny neroIC iua~o-
try and scrupulous fulillment of the
lightest or heaviest task he undertook.
In social life he was generous and un.
restrained, full of the knightly, mirth-
loving, romantic spirit; poet who kept
his heart green to the last, wher
disease was upon him, and the plethorlt
habit of his middle life. These dulle6
his eye, but never broke his spirit no.
turned his thoughts to gall.
AS poet, we say. the qualities of hi
mature style were now fairly displayed
From the beginning, rhythm, the susur
rus of liquid measure, had much to d
with his sense of the beautiful in verse
and reacted upon his Imagination. H
reveled in the effect of the broad En-
glish vowels, the "hollow ae's and oe's.
and in the consonantal vigor of our Ian
guage. He enjoyed reading aloud tb
poetry of Darley, of Byron and Shelley
and read his own with such melody an,
: resonance, that one who listened to ii
chanting sound was no more able tina
3 himself to tell whether it was of hi
r poorest or his best. Its dominant qual
ity, therefore. was often that of elc
!, quence, as in the verse of Croly an
S Campbell. Poe quoted from one of hi
early pieces. to show that eloquence an
!, imagination may 60 together;
q .Then from her seat. amid the palms embowered
That shade the lion-land,
: Swart Africa in dusky aspect lowered,
n The fetters on her hand
Backward she saw, from out her drear eclipse
The mighty Theban years.
And the deep anguish of her mournful lips,
h Interpreted her tears"
6 | have said that Bryant was "elemen
all in his communion with sea and fo
est and the misty mountain winds. Ia,
!, lor, as to the general range of his poetr,
was clinical and secular. Nation
! races, eras, the past and future of MAJ
: kind, were the objects of his regard
. got his material, his imaginative picture
: from their aspect, and his most elevate
verse relates to their historic and pr
j phetic phases.
! His art method was simple and d
= rect, obvious rather than suggestiv
h and he generally composed in maj
key. Some of his measures, like tho
of Barry Cornwall, are fresh with t
OF breeze and spray:
IN .sThey were born by the shore. by the Shore
10 When the surf was loud and the sea-gun criet
, They we're rocked to the rhythm Of its roar,
ne They were Graded in the arms Of the tide"
in In other moods he would write balla
n or tender and exquisite lyric, Ii
ne 1.-The Song of the Camp. enough of
at self to confirm his title as poet.
had, in truth, the spontaneity of a bo