Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-04-01
THE psoLINE OF POETRY.

| the nllQSuInIneT Aries, 1Oou diiSSoi
lied the destructive influence of the modern
spirit upon the quaint and beautiful
superstitions and traditions of the past
It would seem as though the same levelinG
modern spirit had laid its paralyzing hand
upon Poetry ALSO for that gentle science
too, manifests alarming symptoms of de-
crepitude. The recent death of our great
est poet, Longfellow, has naturally called
attention to the condition of Poetry, moi
only IN America, but throughout the
civilized world, and it has brought into
strong relief the somewhat startling fact
that when the few poets of the first and
second rank now living, shall die, they will
leave no successors, either in America,
England, Germany, France or Italy. II
might indeed almost be said that within the
past half century no poets have been born.
All those who enjoy any considerable repu-
tation now are older. Most of the higher
order of poets are so old that in the course
of nature they must be expected soou
to pass away. Of Longfellow's contempt.
raries few can hope to survive him long.
Whittier is within two years of the dead
poets age. DR.. Holmes is not much
younger. James Russell Lowell is more
than sixty, though he is the youngest of the
American group And there are none who
promise to fill the places of these veterans.
Verse.making, indeed, is common too
common by far. The magazines and news.
papers print reams of rhymes every year,
and certain proportion of the magazine
and knack of versifcation. But there are
no first or secondrate poets among our
young men, and still less is there any one
man of whom it can be said that he prom
ises to fill the place of even the least OF
those who are about to leave US.
Every student of history is aware that
Literature has its fallow seasons, when
everybody predicts its extinction, and when
it seems as though all genius and origi-
nality and fire had become exhausted. The
explanation of these fallow seasons is
necessarily difficult, seeing that it involves
most careful and comprehensive analysis
of all the Influences which have during
considerable periods been directed upon
Literature, And the fact that the same
results are often produced by widely diff
fering causes makes il easy to mistake the
nature of the agencies which have been at
work. Thus it is practically open to every
man to strike out his own line of exolana-
ton, and it is hardly possible to invent an
explanation in which there will not be
some measure of plausibility. We may
say that the democratic spirit has killed
Poetry that the decline of religious faith
has undermined it; that the growth of
materialism has poisoned it; that its decay
is due to the new educational methods to
the comparative neglected classical studies !;
to the clearing away of the unknown in the
physical world; to the practically of the
age in short, to half hundred causes.
1t is fortunate for Americans that the same
kind Of intellectual drought has fallen upon
all the world at once, and that therefore
analysts of the Tocqueville kind cannot
attribute it to the leveling tendencies of
our institutions.
1t may indeed be said that the true rea.
son of the decline of Poetry is the great
and general growth of prosperity among
all peoples, and there is no doubt natural
antagonism between peace and plenty and
most poetry. But all theories which set
out with the purpose of proving that in
some way the end of poetry has, come,
must be regarded as fallacious Poetry
will die when the human race perishes
from the earth, and not before. 1t is as
immortal as Humanity, because it is the
expression of those vague, mysterious yet
passionate longings and aspirations which
are eternally revived in Man by mere con.
temptation of the Universe which sur
rounds him, and of which he can no more
rid himself than he can rid himself of his
physical organism. Poetry may decline,
as now, but when the need comes, it will
revive, and no matter how low the fame
may be, it can never be wholly extin-
guished.
Yet at present 1t is certainly very low in
the lamp. We have shown how barren is
the prospect in this country, and it is
equally SO in England. When Tennyson
dies, and Browning, there will be none to
take their places. The Swinburne school
is not worthy to be named in connection
with those poets. Its very existence in.
deed is melancholy proof of the degen.
eracy of the times. Matthew Arnold de.
serves mention as genuine, pure and a
powerful poet. But he too, is contem.
porary of Tennyson and Browning, and
cannot be classed among the younger
authors. OF these latter the most prom.
Using is James Thomson, a1thor of "The
Getty of Dreadful Night poem which
for originality and depth of thought far
surpasses any strictly modern composition
that can be named. AS to the Morris
school, in the first place it is not new, and
in the next place it has not solidity enough
to preserve it. Morris is certainly very
sweet and charming singer, but all his
poetry is of the lotus eating kind, and can
therefore only crafty certain indolent
mood. The Rossetti school is also not a
little frivolous as well as " fleshly," and
of the small-fry generally it is unnecessary
to say anything. 1t is only too apparent
that when the masters who were born early
in the century die, they will leave gaps in
Literature which cannot be filled.
Neither are there in France or Germany
any great rising poets. Goethe and Schil.
Ter, Burger and Heine, have not had their
places filled. INLAND has not successor,
and the German poetry of the third quar-
ter of the century is jejune and fiat.
In France Victor Hugo still remains the
poet of his age, and the Mussets, Beranger
and their contemporaries have not found
worthy successors. Everywhere frivolity
or sloveniiness in verse-making disappoint