The Emporia weekly news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1881-1889, 1886-02-18
FoRGoTrH POETS.

4 4 Western journal that Plutarch's {
neY are crowded out of the minds OF
Ioung Americans by the images Of Lin ]
DIN and Grant. Against this view
shelly also supplies comfortable
hought:
True love in this differs from gold and clay
That TO divide is not to take away
Those laurels of Miltiades not only So
cured him to heroic remembrance, but
.hey also embalmed Themistocles- Lin
coln and Grant rather send US back to
Plutarch than obscure his gallery. One
of their greatest services Is that OF 10
xeaIinc to us the truth that the essen
tially noble and heroic qualities are Al
WAYS the same. The time and the clr-
cumstance differ, not the very man.
Emerson found in Lincoln the shrewd-
ness of Esop. Have we not seen IN
Grant the magnanimity of Fabiusg
But the paper of which we speak re.
marks that it is sadly true that ferclVal
is forgotten poet, and then, seizang
promiscuous assortment of names, ex.
claims that Charles Sprague, William.
Writ, Washington Irving, and Jack
Downing may be referred to as forgot
ten authors But this is the luxury OF
woe. Why should not Perciva1 be >
forgotten poet? That is to say. what Is
there in the verse of Percivai that /
should command interest and attention
to-day?
He was an admirably and remarkably
ACCOMPLISHED man and a most excellent
gentleman, and his name is very farnil-
lar in the reading books OF the time
when certain grandfathers of to-day
were going to school. But he was
noted poet not because he took rank
with his contemporaries-with Byron,
and Scott, and Keats, and Shelly, and
Coleridge, and Wordsworth-but be-
cause there were very few Americans
who wrote verses, and our fathers pa
triotically stood by them.
Granville ,Mellen is a forgotten poet
| also. If the gentle reader will turn the
pages of Kettell, he will seem to him
self to be walking among tombs. Upon
each page might be suitably inscribed.
Sacred to the memory of almost every
one of the lamented singers. John Neal
| is there, and Rufus Dawes, and James
G. Eastburn, excellent gentlemen,
worthy writer's, all of them. But can
we say, with honest reproach. forgot
ten poets?'' Is Fame to be held response
BILE for not retaining the name OF every
minstrel who loiters by and touches his
harp lightly and sings a sweet song as
he passes on? 1t is a hard fate to give
| pleasures to those who listen, because
: those who are out of hearing do not
turn and applaud?
Many an author may have tone and
+ touch which please the ear and taste Of
. his own day, and which, as characters
tic of time, may be curious to later
taste, like the costumes and bonnets Of
our great-grandmothers. But Young
America, sauntering at the club and Al
, | Newport, would not willingly wear the
: boots of Beau Nash, nor even the cloak
, | of Beau Brummel. 1t is, indeed. doubt
o full whether the great law which pro,
o vides that nothing shall be lost is not
y equally observable in the realm of liter
e airy fame. Is anything of literature lost
q that deserves remembrance. or, more
e properly. can il be lost? A fair answer
r to the question may be found in the re
o ply to another, whether delving in ket
y tell or in any other anthology reveals
d treasures dropped by fame as preciOm
O as those she carries.
e Our newspaper is certainly too swift
j. in saving that Irving may be classes
among the forgotten authors. There ar
= two ways in which an author survives
Z one, by the constant reading of hi
\ works: the other, by his name. Is Mil
:. ton forgotten author? But how muc
IF is he read, compared with the conten
IF porary singers? Is Plato forgotten
q Yet how many know him except by hi
10 name? Irving thus far holds by both
Time also winnows its wheat. blOwin
]. away much chat. but the golden graf
b remains. This is true not only of tn
e whole multitude of authors, but of til
o works of each author How many c
e them really survive only in the antholC
l. gy? Astoria and Captain Bonnevill
" and MahOmet and other books of Irwin
q may gradually disappear. But til
. Knickerbocker, and Rip Van Wrinkle
and certain other tales and essays, hav
&c become, SO far as we can foresce, an il
d teSral part of our literature.
= As for Spraguc-mild, genial. charm
= ing gentleman. who carried his simpl
q freshness of nature and of manner {
% the end, and about whose yenerabl
" head in State Street always shone tn
q faint halo of early poetic rcnown-hl
i. literary talent was essentially for day
D, not for all time. In every age there wi
If be singers. and delightful singers, {
" the day. On Christmas Eve the Eas
l. Chair heard the passing music in tn
t, street that supplies for It's the song of th
u waits. 1t was sweet and mclodious, an
al pensively recalled ihp d-N> and I'll
= faces and the voices that are no NOR,
1
y it heard long ago; still less were the
y those that the Easy Chairs of ha
century since heard with musing melaI
- chOly. But the substance of the son!
70 and the emotion which it awakened
h and the tender Iathos of association
no these were all the same both then an
of now. Sprague was "A wait of yesterda,
N of last year. of fifty years ago. Othsl
o. sing in the street the song that he SAM
and singing they pass on, and thc.swet
strain grows softer, and fainter an
a. fainter, and the echoes answer. "DyiDj
Of dying, dying il is gone.
m Fame does not forget these troubi
=, dours. 1t never knew them. They ha
y the vogue of their day. See how Kind
10 Mr.. Stedman speaks of those who ar
D. singing for us now. whose names al
D. familiar. who trill and twitter in Tn
d magazines, and in tasteful and deIicat
le volumes which seem to tempt til
re stream of time to suffer such light an
l. graceful barks To slip along unnoted I
future ages. But the kindly critics ton
forecasts the fate of the sparkling an
pleasing ventures. Moore tells us Of til
" Indian maids upon the banks of th
Al Ganges who light a tiny paper, and o
frail little chip set it afioat upon til
river. 1t wrinkles and dwindles an
- flashes and expires. MIR. Stedmal
u watches the minor poets trimming thei
y tapers, and carefully launching the
Y chips upon the trimming river. plea
ant journey!' he cries, cheerily froI
II the shore, as if he were speaking I
hearty Captain Cook going up the Sid
Of his great ship, and shaking out hi
mighty canvas to circumnavigate tn
globe. Pleasant journeyr' cries tn
It CHEEKY critic. But there is q WistfI
is something in his tone that betrays
"A consciousness of the swift extinction {
a that pretty, perfumed spark.
But Shakspeare's women, and Plui
y arch's men, and 1.-THE grand old MAJ
ters." and ''the bards sublime" Il
= not tapers upon a river; they are star
In the armament. Lincoln and Gran
viii not crowd out Washington an
Franklin and Hamilton and Adams
nor they Edmund Burke and Chatham
. nor any great man any other great man
9 There is room in space for every plane
and every star and every particle Of sta
dust, for all that the eve can see and Al
: that eludes the most searching telesco
y pic quest. Nor need any singer fea
= that the latest ages will not hear hii
song, If he sing song worth its hear
ing George BTiIiGDi Curtis, ia Rar
! per's Magazine for February.
a Boy Who Understands 'En.
The other morning a boy about 1.
! years of age knocked as the door of ,
house ON Brush street and asked III,