The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1881-02-24
The Aspiring Poet.
lPeck's Sun |

to the editor?" asked grave and venerable
gentleman, with kindly face and pleasant
smile.
"He's out" responded the law reporter.
"Is there anything can do?"
II am Dr. Holmes" responded the gentle
man.
Where's your office, doctor? Come to SEQ
about the diphtheria? can do as well as the
editor. What is it?' and the law reporter
braced himself
Or Oliver Wendell Holiness" replied the
gentleman, his handsome face beaming with
good nature. 81 have little poem should
like to submit. Shall I leave it with you?''
The law reporter took it and read it aloud
You call it Winter Day on the Prai-
rie, said he, "h'm; yes.''
A binding glare, silver sky,
A sea of snow, with frozen spray;
The foaming bilows swelling high,
Updashed against the icy day.
White-laden northern whirlwinds blow
Across the pale seas heavy breast,
And NIL the creamy ebb and flow
With stormy terror and unrest.
The storm birds fly athwsrt the main
Like rudderless, bewldered ships;
The stranded winds breathe sobs OF pain
And frosty froth from psllid lips.
The seethiDg milky waves, in swift,
Harsh struggles with the fate that binds,
Against the wrecked and straining winds.
sea Of loneliness and death.
Whose waves are ghosts, whose wales are
Whose perspiration is the breath
That turks in northern winter caves;
snowy gloom whose icy shade
Whose silver sombreness is laid
a glaring pail across his breast
"Just so, Just so," continued the law repor-
ter did you want this published as it is?'
II had thought something of giving il pub
liclty," replied the doctor.
You'll have to get the advertising clerk to
register 1t, then," retorted the law reporter.
II II wouldn't take the responsibility OF sending
1t In as IL stands now"
what seems to be the matter with it?" in
quired the DOCTOR
Il don't think it is natural. Now, here; you
take snowstorm on the prairie and make it
sea- Then you freeze it all up and make it
dash around. You've either got to thaw it out
or quit dashing it. We may be able to alter it
so it will do if you'll leave it,
What alterations would you suggest?"
asked the doctor.
I'D fix that first verse so as to be III accord
ance with the facts; make it 'sequential. as
we say in law. Instead of having the blind
ing, and the silver, and the foamimg bilows,
and the white-laden winds. and the creamy
ebb, and all that rot, I'd put it this way:
In township thirty, range twenty nine
Described In ! he deed as prairie land,
1t sometimes SHOWS in the winter time,
AS we are gwen TO understand.
This alleged snow falls on level
It's said, some several feet more,
And when the W nd blows like the devil,
Ii drifts from where it was before.
'In that way" continued the law reporter,
"you get the facts before the public without
committing the paper to anything Under
your poem any man who would prove that you
we're talking about his land could bring a libel
Suit and the mi of 6amauaa uond ha
what he could have sold it for il you hadn't
written it up as sea-"
'Will the other verses do?" asked the doc
tor.
''I'm afraid not" replied the law reporter
''Ths business about the storm bird without
rudder, and stranded winds and milky waves
don't prove anything. They wouldn't be ad-
mitted in evidence anywhere. suppose yon
want to express desolation, but the testimony
isn't good. Why don't you say
In the place aforesaid when the sad winds blow,
The tenants thereof don't go about,
And ouch birds as find they can stand the snow
Look as though they'd had their tails pulled
And when the said snow and said winds are gone,
It's found the said land finds a ready taker,
For though you can't farm much when the win
ter's on,
The property don't fall cent an acre.
"There you get your desolation, and your
birds, like rudderless ships, and at the same
time you throw in clause which lets you out
of the libel by showing that the snow don't
affect the value OF the ground The way you
had 1t you would have brought all the West
ern settlements down on u.s. Been a poet
long?"
"I-I-that is, begin to think not" gasped
the unhappy doctor. But can't you do some
thing with the last verse?"
we might leave that out altogether, or we
might substitute something for it. The last
verse is contradiction of terms. It's non
sequttur, as we say in law, n I'd could have no
status in court in the event OF an action. You
can't say snowy gloom or white shade, and
as for glaring pail presume you mean the
white velvet ones they use for infants. 1
couldn't pass that in but might change it
for you. How would this do?-
1t is rumored that while the snow
Is on the land before described
1t looks as though one couldn't SOW
Seed to advantage. though this is denied.
Some people hold that it empties the pouch
10 buy land in the winter in the North;
For this unsupported statement we cannot vouch,
But give the story for what it is worth.
"This, you see, gives all sides of the question,
without making the paper responsible for any
thing. l call that q superior article Of poetry"
continued the law reporter, reading the three
stanzas over in an admiring tone Of voice.
"But there isn't any poetry in it," stam-
mered the doctor.
"What is the reason there isn't?" demanded
the law reporter Indignantly. Don't 1t tell
everything you did, and don't it rhyme in
some places? Don't it get out all the facts,
and don't it let the people know what's going
on?"
"Of course it does," chimed in the police re-
porter. That is what 1 call good item of
poetry. 1 think you might add startling de-
velopments may be expected, and that the po-
lice have got Glow to the perpetrator."
That isn't necessary replied the law re-
porter loftily. "We poets always leave some
thing to the readers Imagination
II believe I'll CO." murmured the doctor.
"All right, sir. Come around any time
when you've got some poetry you want fixed
up" and the law reporter bowed the visitor
out.