Semi-weekly south Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1883-1889, 1884-04-29
POE IND THE ENGLISH POETS.

1t is particularly irritating to the
Americans to be told that, after 30 many
generations of accomplished and vigor'
GUS writer's, the poetry Of Edgar Poe
still remains the most individual poetic
product to which the United States
have given birth. This is annoying,
and they escape it by direct negation-
MIR. Henry James, the typical literary
American, even venturing to speak Of
Poe's Every valueless verses" Such
men as Mr.. James ask us if we are sim
cere in preferring these light tones OF
music to the intellectual force and
severity of Bryant, to the humanity OF
Longfellow, to the wit of Holmes and
Lowell. To this there seems an answer
which will hardly satisfy any but those
who have made poetry their principal
study. These will have perceived that
in the history of the world what has
really preserved the memories of writers
Of verse has not been intellectual force,
or the clear expression of love and pity,
or even wit, but certain indefnable
felicity of style; apower of saying things
as they never were said before, and so
that they can never be forgotten. 1t is
avery remarkable thing that Edgar Poe,
who was not q man of much weight of
character, or even originality of intellect,
yet happened to possess, to a very high
degree, this extraordinary gift of style.
In this no American poet has so much
as approached him, and it is probable
that this will preserve his verse, like
rose petal in drop of glycerinc, bound
to decay because of its ephemeral and
disconnected condition, yet never act
ually decaying.
Here in England, where every I'M
prejudiced thinker must admit that
poetry has hourished since the begin
ming of the century far more than in
America, Edgar Poe has taken his place
as one of the fashioners of style. Wheth-
er his influence has been altogether
beneficial may perhaps be a matter of
reasonable doubt. But his influence is
not to be doubted. Long ago Mr.. Ten
nyson came under the sway of his muSic;
Mr.. Matthew Arnold, in the New
Sirens" and Mr.. Rosetti, in more than
one piece of structural melody, have
felt it; Mr.. Swinburne, though he has
so thoroughly conquered the notes and
made them his own, would scarcely have
begun as he did without "Ulalume I"
and the "Conqueror Worm" But the
English writer who has most closely re-
sembled Edgar Poe in his morunful and
mortuary temper, though he wore his
rue with difference, was the late Mr..
Arthur o 'Shaughnessy, whose "Fountain
of Tears, and Barcarolle" threw more
light on the structure and value of Poe's
verses than pages of the cleverest criti-
cism. In France, where the cadence
and the verbal felicity were lost, the in
Auence of Poe, which was so strong for
little time, seems to have faded away.
We do not hear now of the gentleman
who was spending years and years on a
translation of 1.-THE Raven" and whose
version was expected by his friends to
be greater masterpiece than the origi-
nal Baudelaire's beautiful paraphrases
and commentaries, in which he man.
aged, while retaining the essential char
acteristics Of Poe's work, to infuse a
strong quality of his own, will always
be of interest to students OF literature. -
Pail Mall Gazette.