The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-08-23
SHELLEY'S "COR CORDIUM."
The Shock on Finding that the Poets
Liver and Not His Heart Survived,
And, Besides, Even That May Not Be Buried
in the Cemetery at ROme-Some Sugges-
tons on Art and to Indiana Artists.
Correspondence Of the Indianapolis Journal.


In THE APENN1NEs NEAR LA CAvA, Italy,
Aug. Z, 1685.-Again l wish to drop my
notes of Egyptian travel until my next
communication, for / have had rude shock
up here on a spur Of the Apennines But
1t is not a material shock which | have had
within sight of the sea and the distant plains of
faestum on one side. and on the other the near
dragged rocks and hills, and in the distance the
blue mountains, one Of which overhanging
Capua Is where Hannibal planted himself and
shocked the Romans of his day. This is
good place tohave a shock of any kind. because
though the days are warm the mornings, even
1ngs and nights are COOL and many are the
pleasant walks we have in this picturesque
region, which more than two hundred years ago
was painted by no less personages than Salvador
Rosa and Claude Lorraine. l mention these two
names because the one painted rugged cliffs, the
lofty mountains, and the wave-gnawed sea coast,
and tho other gave us sweetness and light Of
these Apennires heights and Apennines Wales
either IN their evening rosy tints or in their
mornings gray. do not care what Ruskin
whom l admire very much says in his dogmatlc
way about some painters. and 1 be-
lieve that both Salvador Rosa and
Claude Lorraine will be admired as
landscape painters two hundred years hence as
they are admired now, two hundred years after
their death And ali this recalls to my mind an
admirable feature in the Indianapolis Journal
L e., that each week, you give running
account of what is doing in society, art music
and painting, etc, in the capital of Indiana. l
rejoice there to learn that Steele has returned to
indianapolis, bringing with him the fruits of his
residence abroad, which fruits are not merely
the painting but his capabilities developed by
industrious, patient study. Steele always had
it in him, ana. as | once before said in my cor
respondence one of Steeles little original pieces
painted in the open air, before going abroad, has
been very much admired by Italian and other
artists in Naples some Of whom rank amongst
the first. Would that others of my fellow
townsmen and townswomen like Steele, would
strike out for themselves leave off making
copies, and do more that is original. 1 know
that many are striving in that Girection-many
do paint from nature-but too many continue to
make copies from German, French ana English
pictures, chromos. etc, and Go not 90 to our
woods, our farms and our riverside for their in
SEPARATION 1t is of great advantage to copy verses
from a favorite poet to commit them by heart,
ETC., but that does not make the poet. If one
has the ''fne frenzy" the least bit Of it,
let him, or her, strike out for himself
or herself. Whole volumes of copied, or com
mitted poetry will avail nothing beyond a GER
tain degree of pleasure and cultivation, and the
use of good models) toward making an original
poet. And as to original poetry and good,
l think the Journal is taking the right course to
develop it by publishing so much that is of q
high class.
This little original out door sketch in oil by
Steele, to which l have referred, is that of IAN
Autumn Day in Indiana" 1t smacks of some
thing new to painters here, and it always
attracts more attention from Neapolitan artists
than the best copies which have at hand land
have some good ones). hope that our young
painters will cultivate in their art the woods
and fields in short, the quiet scenery of Indiana.
But to come back to my shock-itis concerning
favorite poet, dead and gone these sixty years
and more. All readers of English literature
know of the poet Shelley. What the pros and
cons were three score years agone in England
concerning Sheey's ethical opinions, etc, when
men were arranged one side or the other by
their preiudices land few judged him by his
poetry. shall not enter into now. | will only
say that as time rolls the majority of readers
feel that Macaulay uttered great truth in his essay
on Bunyan's Pilgrims Progress when he wrote:
I'VE doubt whether any modern poet has pos
sessed in an equal degree, as Shelley the high
est qualities of the great ancient masters. The
words bard and inspiration which seem so
cold when applied to other modern writer's,
have a perfect prOpriety when applied to
him. He was not an author but bard. His
poetry seems not to have been an art
but an inspiration Had he lived to the
full age Of man, he might not improhably have
given to the world some great work of the very
highest rank in design and execution" Alas
Shelley came to a tragic end before he had
reached his thirtieth year, and any one reading
his life, and considering the times in which he
lived must feel convinced that if he could have
reached sixty we should not only have had a
great master. but much that is crude in some of
his ethical ideas would have passed away as the
immaturity of youth, and much in his conduct
that was protest against the narrowness of his
day in high places he, If he had lived to the age
of his friend Trelawney. would have seen that
the world had moved. and had done away with
much of its Peck sniffian bigotry, as he Shelley,
had put away the immature. Professor Wilson,
Tod "Christopher North') once wrote in Black
woods Magazine, Percy Bysshe Shelley
man of far superior powers to Keats"
No one can read the oles to The
Skylark and to The Cloud without feeling
that he was warmed by more genuine and I'M
forced inspiration. These two Cdes his wife
tells us, were written, respectively. in Italy and
England, "as his mind prompted. listening to
the caroling of the bird aoft in the azure sky
of Italy or marking the cloud it sped across
the heavens while he f1Oated in his boat on the
Thames" Sir e. S. Greasy, who wrote the fam
Gus Sixteen Decisive Battles OF the Word" did
not hesitate to say of Shelley that many of his
contemporaries and nearly all the poet
ical writer's of eminence since his
time bear visible traces of how much they i'm
bued themselves into the poetry of Shelley
and he cites as illustrative of his statement
"Keats, Miss Landon Monckton Mines Brown
ing and Iennyson No one, indeed, who is
uuacquanted with Shelley, can be aware of the
full richness and melody of our language
So much for the man with ethical faults and
with his poetic excel!ences. But probably in
the minds of most people are ~ The fact of
his death by drowning during a storm
in the nictnresnue Gulf Of Snazia