The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1879-10-16

W
of his travels is that we journey with him,
and enjoy his own emotions. We see with his
eyes the Holy City; with him we smell the
thyme upon Hymettus, or hear the surges
prophesying to the rocks of Tyre. We expert
ence his passion to reach the submits, the ul-
innate deserts, the extreme capes. Such is
the spirit of his travels.
Ten years more QS59) and younger poets
were added to the group-O' 'Brion, Aldrich
and others-among whom Taylor was CEN
trail figure, holding the friendship OF all. Mean
while, as has been said, these Arcadlan in
fiuenees had told upon his genius After re-
spending with conventional poem, Inc
American Legend to the honor OF summons
to read the Phi Beta Ode at Harvard, he
brought out in Boston, under the classic au-
spices of the Ticknor house, volume which
gavo the first adequate measure of his lyrical
powers ga Book of Romances, Lyrics and
Songs" QS5D contained pieces that still rank
among the best he wrote Here is the style,
quite matured, which seems most genuinely
his own. The longest poem, "Monda-Min: or
the Romance of Maize" shows to less advan-
tage than the rest of the book. 1t is version
of an Indian legend akin to that upon which
Lougfellow afterward based his far more I'M
portant work "Hiawatha," and is quietly done;
but with descriptive truth and occasional
touches of strength and originality. The chief
value of the collection was in miscellaneous
pieces always fresh to u.s. These rank with
the best American verse written up to that
time. Nor do know one OF our elder or
composed such an idyl as "Hylas," with its
strong blank verse made soft and liquid by fem
mime endings, the Dorian grace infused with
Just enough sentiment to make 1t effective IN
our modern times 1t is worthy oil place III
Landor's "Hellenics," and in my own mind al
WAYS is associated with "Rhoecus.' None OF
Taylor's later classical pieces is quite SO good
as this. n
/ have said that this volume contained the
first fruits of an interval when the poet felt
most keenly the conversations of art-life. And
| SO it did; for it was by work like this that he
| was able to pass beneath and ont from the
shadow of a somber cloud Ihe painful 70 To-
nance of his youth; the lingering illness OF the
girl to whom he was betrothed, the marriage
only month before she died-all this broke
in upon precious days, and effected more than
a temporary change. 1t was Taylors nature
not to take lightly such loss nor TO hold
loosely so tender a memory. His grief was
foretokened in the December lyric, Moan, ye
wild winds, around the pane" 1t was the mo-
tive of succession of memorial pieces, ex-
pressing moods of sorrow, that ended only
years afterward, with the vision oil 'Ihe
Poets Journal" But now it wore him down,
sent him again on his wanderings, and deter
mined that his life should become one OF rest
less varying action, rather than continue In
this more creative repoSe.
The "Poems of the Orient Mr.. Stedman re-
CARDS as the high-water mark of Mr.. Taylor's
purely lyrical period and says they 'may just
ly be characterized as original, vivid, spontane-
| Gus, harmonious in tone and artistic in exc
| cution.'
OF all regions which Taylor now had trav-
ersed, the Orient seemed more to touch his
| own nature His ready adaptability to the
| life and sentiment of any land was surprising;
| he was our foremost type of the only being
| that can accommodate itself to all extremes of
| climate and custom. But he seems to have
| been born for the Orient, and if his Songs do
| not set forth the East as Orientals know 1t,
| they do set forth Taylor in the East:
''The Poet knew the Land OF the East
His soul was native there"
| IT needed not Hicks's picture of the bronzed
| traveller, in his turban and Asiatic costume,
| smoking cross-legged, upon roof-tree OF Da-
| mascus to show us how much of Syrian he
| then was. We saw it in those down-dropping
| evelids which made his profile like Tennyson's;
| in his aouiline nose, with the expressive tre-
| NOR of the nostrils as he spoke i'll his thlnly
tufted chin, his close-curling hair; his love OF
| Spices music, coffee, colors and perfumes; ms
sensitiveness to outdoor influences to the fresh
| ness of the morning, the BATH the elemental
| touch of air and water and the life-giving sun.
1t is TO be found in the Poems OF the Orient,
| where we have these traits reflected in diverse
| lyrics that make a fascinating whole. In them
he seemed to give full vent to his flood OF song.
| Whether from regard to the criticism that
| charged him with rhetoric and exuberance, or
from the languor of work and travel, in after
| life his poetry was OIteQ uOr6 TcStrllhcu, iSoo
| fervid and exhilarating.
| The varying skies of Egypt, the Desert, the
| Syrian coast of Damascus, of Persia, free these
| poems from the honeyed monotony OF Moores
| Orientalism, and the bookishness OF Southey's;;
| In manner, however, they sometimes remind
us of Byron and of Hunt, and even of Tenny-
| son, whose melodies have haunted so many
| singers and whose MAUD appeared In the
| same wear with the lyrics before us. They are
| not of tho latter-day fashion, either. Although
| and
work of preceding date, their effects are OBJ
yious their music and diction are subordinate
to the main purpose. They thus lack the mod
ern subtlety, but also avoid the fantastic word
handling of our latest verse, and are the more
spontaneous and virile.
Bayard Taylor's capacity for intellectual
growth, and his personal qualities are referred
to as follows:
The poet-trayeller was now in his thirtieth
wear. Assuming that his work now showed
| fhe quality of his gift, after the due period re-
quired for its development, we may pause TO
| examine it's value If he never had done any
| thing more, if his summons had come at TINS
time, there would have been, even as now, few
| whose taking-off would be so deplored, around
whose memory would gather more regrettul
interest. We should speak OF the promise OF
great career, and say, Had he but hyed! and
again, "a passing STAR shining track le1t up
on the western skies!"
Taylor had the elements of prolonged growth.
Being what he was at thirty, the undisturbed
practice of his art, devotion like that Oh len
nyson's or Longfellow's should have given him
wide and indisputable poetic fame. by this
course he would have refined that subtler sense
which, as no one knows more surely than the
present writer is so elusive, so often duiled or
stunted by the force the outcry, the perturb-
ing conflicts of the social the trading, the pro
fessonal or even the patriotic and poltical'
world of action and toll. Still, this poets ca
pabilities, aside from his gift of song, were
| r.. ,x1ax,,
unique, and pressed Tor empioyment. His
memory was prodigious. Nothing that he
learned was forgotten, and he learned without
effort, After single reading he knew poem
by heart and could repeat whole pages OF MS
favorite authors; and there was but Ittie that
he did not read or see. His perception OF ex-
ternals was alive and true; but he did not SC
readily catch by intuition the thoughts and
feelings of those about him. He had fine
sense of form and color, drew and painted
creditably, and seemed natural artist. his
. linguistic powers were we'll known. German
he mastered, wrote in, thought in; 1T became
|, so much like a native tongue with him as 10
refute the theory that one gains oil forelgh
language only so much as ne roses OIL Iis omhi i;
His personal traits were no less admirable.
To think of him is to recall person larger I'D
make and magnanimity than the common sort
a man of indescribable buoyancy, hopeiuiness,
sweetness of temper-reverent, loyal Shrinking
from contention, yet ready to do battle for
principle or in the just cause of friend; pat
riot 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 unworthy act. HIS
omen delight over any work of his own that
pleased him was the reverse of egotism, yet of
len misunderstood by those who slightly knew
him. He was without jealousy, though some,
times ruffied by the prosperity OF 1uacks ana ana
nretenders and took as much pleasure in the
legitimate success of others as in his own Yet
his personal ambition and aspiration were very
great, only equalled by his heroic industry and
scrupnlous fulflment of the lightest or heavt
J est task he undertook.
The Way of the World.