New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1881-01-23
CREAM OF THE MAGAZINES
TIE POETRY OF THE PRESENT AND THE
FUTURE.
Wall Whi,maa ~ The Worth American.

Tho fatal defects our American singers labor
under are subordination of spirit, an absence OF
the concrete aud of real patriotism and Ill excess
that modern aesthetic c0ntagOn a oueer FREUD OF
mine calls the beauty disease. The inmoderate
taste for beauty and arto says Charles Daudealre,
leads men into monstrous excuses In minds nm
bucd with frantic greed for the beautiful all the
balances of truth and Justice disappear. Tnero IS
lust disease OF tho art faculties, when eats up
the moral like n cancer
Of course by our plentiful verse-writeIs there is
plenty of service performed, OF kind. Nor need
we 90 far for tally. We see in every polite cir
Gle. class Of accomplished, go0d-natnIed persons
"a society,"" in fact. could not get on without then)
fully eligible Tor certain problens, times, anu
dutieS-to mix cgg-nog to mend the broken spec
tacles to decide whether tho stewcd cells shall pre-
cedc the sherry the sherry thu stew ell ees to exc
ont Mrs A. BIS parlor -tableauX with monk, Jew,
Turk, lover. Romeo, Pack, ProSpero Caliban. or
what not and to generally contribute and grace
fully adapt their disabilities and talents. in those
ranges, TO the worlds service. But for real crises
great needs and pills moral or physical, they might
as we'll have never been born.
Or the accepted notion of poet wonld appear to
be sort of male odalsque. singing or plano-play-
ing kind of spiced ideas, secondhand Ieminis-
conces, or toying late hours at enter tainments i'll
rooms sitting with fashionable scent L think
haven't seen a new-published healthy. brac, ng
simple lyric in ten years Not long ago. there were
verses in each of three fresh monthlles from lead:
ing authors, and in every one the whole central
motif perfectly serious) the mclancholincss of
a manageable young woman who didn't get rIcn
husband but poor one!
Besides It's tonic and al tresco physiology. reliev-
inc such this, the poetry OF the future will take
on character III q more important respect Science,
having extirpated the old stock-fahles and super
sttions, IS clearing a field for worse, tor all the
arts, and even for romance, q hundred-fOld ampler
and more wonderful, with the new principles be-
hind. Rcpubcanlsn advances over the whole
world. Liberty, with Law by her side, Will ono
day be paramount will ar any rate be the central
idea. Then only--for all the splendor and beauty
OF what has been. or the polish OF what is-fhen
only will the true poets appear, and the true poems
Not the satin and patchouly OF to-day, not the
Qualification Of the butcheres and wars OF the past,
,l,f hoFxt nm an A fu
body else on the Othcr-nOt Mlton NOT even
Shakespeare's plays. grand as they are, Entirely
different and hitherto unknown classes OF men, be
ing authortatvey called for IN imaginative litera-
tnre, will certainly appear. what Is hitherto most
lacking, perhaps most absolutely Indicates the
future. Democracy has been hurried on throneh
time by measureless tides and winds, reSlstleSS as
the revolution of the globe and as far-rcachng
and rapid. But in the highest wa ks oil art IL mas
not yet had single representative worthy Oh IL
anywhere upon the earth. -,
arlOr and genius than to sing worthlly the songs
these States have already indicated. Their origin,
Washington, rs, the picturesqueness OF old times.
the war of 1912 and the sca-llRhts; the lncreuiDe
rapidity OF movement aud breadth OF area-to tlSe
and compact the South and North, the East anu
West to express the native forms, situations,
scenes from Montauk 10 California and from the
Saguenay to the Rio Grando-,the working Out on
such gigantic scales and with such swift ana
mighty play of changing light ami shade. OF the
great Problems OF man and freedom,-how lar
ahead of the stcreotyped plots or gem-cuttlna; OF
tales of love. or wars of mere ambition! Our his
tory is so full of spinal modern, gernllnal subjects
one above all. What the ancient siege OF illlim.
and the pussance of HcctOrs and Agamcmnons
warrors proved to Hellenic art and literature ana
all art and literature since, may prove the war OF
ATTEMPTED secession of lSG1-5 to the future
aesthetics, drama, romance, poems oil the Chitcu
States 1890
Nor could utility itself provide anything more
practically seryccabc to the hundred millions
who n couple of generations hence, will inhabit
within the limits lust named, than the permeation
OF n sane sweet. autOchthonous national poetry
must say of "A kind that does not nov exist but
which fully believe. will i'll time be supplied on
scales as free az natures elements. ut IN ackn0wl-
edged that we OF the States are the most material
i,tic and ncy-making people ever known MY
are the most emotional spirtualistc, and poetry
lnNinp nronlr alSOl