The Sunday herald. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1866-1887, 1880-07-04
LoNoFELLow's aIBBERIsH.'


In noticing Rev. Mr.. Haweis's "poets in the
Pulpit IS the ondon Saturday Rerieo says;
The words with which Mr.. hawcis ends his criiique
OF MIR. Longfclcw seems to Us very much To the
TAKE home to your hearts the warmth Of his sweet
natural religion; take home the peaceful aud quiet
contemplation OF death and the grave, aud the bright
glimpscs IL the shining fields beyond; take home his
manly courage his earnest cueayor att'r all that Is
noble and sweet and upwards take home his un-
stained aspirations. his and belief Nv the triumph
Of good. lie sends you forth Into The year. bnt
he bids you tread its threshold with nrm and light
step: before you lies an unknown, untravccd world.
In these words Mr.. Longfelow's moral qualities
and they are his chief quaiiosarc very well
summed up. Mr.. IIaweis wisely ahstalncd from re-
citing Excelsior " fearing, perhaps, that the pcopc
would Join In as popular chorus. But II is odd 10
mud Mr. iiaweis saying ,hat PERHAPS IN ,ho rsa'm
The '' Psalm OF Ife"' II there be any weaving In
the English language, Is gibberisi Let us anaiyze
two " the verses;
Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And departing, leave behind MS
Footprints ON the sand OF time.
Footprints that perhaps another,
sailing DER ies solemn man
A foflorn and shipwtecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.
Even II one can conceive Of life as n "solemn
main, " bordered by Islands OF time, " how can the
mariners on tho main leave their footprints on the
sandsy And what possible comfort can footprints on
the sand he 10 a shipwrccked brother who despite his
shlpwreck, stu keeps persiscntly sailing Ger NE
solemn many The brother must have hadvofy shafI
eyes II he could footprints On the sands from HI.
raft for his ship Is supposed TO have been wrecked
long ago. Perhaps MIR. Longiellow was thinking OF
the fcotstep which Robinson Crisoo found on the
sand Of his desert Island. Hut Robinson was not sail
ing when he detected that isolated phenomenon; nor
when lie saw It did he .take heart again." The fact
Is that Robert Montgomery never wrote greater
nonsense than the 90 Psalm at Life,h Tile poem Is
popular because the public vaguely feel that IL,
author means TO be very Improving Like the North
ern Farmer, they .'t6nk he says what he ought I,
ha' said, " and they go away. Mr. iaMeis even
sends them away with that amazing remark about
l.ongiellcw being sweetest and most powerful !,
the Psalm Of life, AS, Indeed, he Is there mos
| admirably concise.' Concise! a poet tells us - u
the bivouac OF fe' not to be IKE ''duml,, driver
| cattle, :" to he "a hero" What an alternative,
either to be cattle IN the plural or singular hero
And what business have cattle III bivOuacr
When Mr.. Hawcis comes TO MIR. Tennyson h,
selects the laureates characteristics his depth an,
sobriety OF thought, his wide sympathies and Ill
moral and religious Instincts Mere critics Of poetry
| as poetry, would select other qualities: hut MIR
llawcls has to adapt rennyson to pulpit purposes
Much that he says Is true though this does sound
little odd 'Iiow sound and sweet his words ~
the great question OF the redistribution OF property
| the iaureate's language, we fear. would he raihe
| strong and direct than sound and sweet. But w
hurry on to what is the real point In Mr. rcnnyscn
as In MIR. browning, MIR. l.ongiellow, and the rest
| They are all optimists. All OF them hold. In tn
geographical language of one of Dickens characters
that "thngs viii come round and be all square. y
and good women, is at the bottom an optimist "
pesslmist poet, Ike Leopard. would be worse tha
| useless III the pulpit. Nothing could he done With
writer who said. like the speaker In Cloughs caste
| Hymn:
OF all the creatures under heavens high cope.
| We are the most hopeless who had once most hope
| And NEST bellefiess who had most believed.
Such poet at most could only serve rs an "awf,
example, And II we look ut modern poetry, ut til
poetry OF men who have lived since the ''imiciis
| hope that ,raversed the earth" became more dim
do find them optimists. They less a. faint
trust the larger hope" They hold that
ALL as In some piece OF art,
| IL "a