The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-06-04
THE FIELD OF LITERATURE.
"An Epieramma,ic Voyage,

interest for those members of Me-. Snider 8
former classes in this city who had the hign
pleasure of bearing its author read portions OF
the poem from manuscript The poem, cover
Ing 123 small octave pages, is composed OF some
e19 epigrams, which vary in indlviduai iengtn
from tive to fifty or more lines This volume Is
q partial result of a rich journey made oy the
author through Greece, journey which has
Already Welded three considerable harvests, gar
nered under the titles of "Delphic Days. a
poem: "a Walk in Hellas" two volumes of prose,
and ..Agamemnon's Daughter" also poem.
The object of this poem is confessed by its author
In the following lines:
shs is the fruit of the journey; to In the mirror
Hellenic,
What the world once was, what is now falrest and
best"
The publication Of this collection Of epigrams
must confirm every favorable impression pro-
duced by the preceding works; since all of the
poetic qualities manifested in them, are here
shown in stilf higher degree. Here is indicated
Q susceptibility to all the forms and moods of
nature, equaled only in Shelley and his few
beers. Here, also, are abundant evidences of
the presence of that double vision which enables
Its possessor to see in every form and mood of
pature symbol of spirit. The conviction that
nature is, to the unthinking veil which conceals
God, but to the inquirng. magic mirror which
eeveals him, pervades every page Witness
lew lines:
'Thou must behold in the sea not merely the sea- but
hirrored down in the deep, changing to forms of the
gods"
sButif no Deity thou ean'st behold in the rill or
Peer once more in its glass; there thou beholdest thy
face"
Finest dropet of sweetness is slipped from the earth
On the flower alights slipping it's treasure the bee
From the stores of the bee sips man. Of Slippers the
highest;
An the sweetness of earth he must distl into lhe
A third quality, rarer than. that sympathetic
p%rcention which notes every feeting change IN
natures face, higher, too, than that insight.
winch sees in every phase symbol, viz, that
aualty by possession Of which one becomes ma
tures ready interpreter, is recognized by Mr..
Enider as Of paramount importance, and is pos
sessed by him in a remarkable degree
"Every grape must be crushed with thought, not
stupidity swallowed
thou wilt feel the light glow Lit in the grape by the
god"
The poets mission is, in the esteem of
Mr. Snider, too lofty to permit him for
amoment to degrade the poets powers to the
service of the senses; Art" he tells us. must
be a true worship of gods, not merely enjoy
ment.
Goddess is the high Muse and scorns to be used for
desire"
"Poet is he who to speech transferring the image of
Therein hidden transfers also the form of the god'
With this definition of poet, with this high con-
seption of art in his mind. Mr.. Snder In these
epigrams makes himself guide and translator to
khnc.a ruha Uil Rome
Naples, thence to Pompei, thence through ldyl-
lie Grecian landscapes to Athens. seat of Pallas
Athena. The poets discrimination concerning
historical values is one of the most satisfying
do not tell better the mission of Rome, nor so
well indicate it's limitations. AS the reader walks
with the poet through the Eternal City. the lat
ter tersely the lesson of every hilltop, the
significance of every structure, and reads
the story, continued through centuries,
Of it's thronging streets. Whether the streets
throng with ntruding barbarians with Roman
sonquerers, with processioned monks, our
guide is on easy terms of familiar acquaintance
with them all; and introduces them to US with
an informal frankness which revives every
withered scrap of our former knowledge, and
makes us see the true proportions, and the rela
tve significance of every passing figure.
In Rome the poet chances at the past. ever
seeking the sources Of its culture. and seeking
why this culture was never more than engrafted
|. on the Roman stalk, never assimilated into the
N Roman fe.
The tendency Of the Roman to extremes, his
liability to find the mean between asceticism
md license, is figured in many ways; while the
apacity of the Greek for holding in perfect equi
poise all of the harmonized passions, is sung in
most appreciative lines.
"Romau colossal thy WILL gigantic thy virtue fear
But thon eanst not enjoy, senses win turn thee to
swine
'As thy virtue, Latium, is mad thy pleasure is
beastly;
Hellas enjoys and refrains sweety together in one.
Few are the travellers in Greece who have
taken thther so vital knowledge of classic
times His geographical knowledge is SO accu
rate he has so familiar an acquaintance with the
myths, the traditions and the history of every
place, and so clear perception of the exact lin
Its of myth and Of history, that no questions
arise. no debates are necessary. Sight OF a
place and comprehension Of its whole past sig
niicance are with him almost coinodent
Through its literature Mr.. Snider knows Greece
not "as through a grass, darkly," but AS face TO
face His reverence for the old Greek bards
communicates itself by its intensity to the
eeader.
'Thou, old Homer vert the first builder in Greece,
Aftssward she could but turn fancies of thine into
stone:
Architects followed thee building thy poem alOft into
temples
geulptors followed thee, too thinking in marble thy
line"
Again he exclaims:
Snow we have come to the water smit by the
of Ulysses
Now we have entered the world sunnily built of the
myth,
Slowly transmitting itself from the fancy down into
the senses,
Fables of ages we see drop into Natures garb"
It would be hard to find more charming in
timafion of the qualities and the effect of GER
tain poetry than is contained in this tribute to
Anacreop:
mature becomes q melodious banquet reeling n
verses
Roses and ivy and vines twirl round thy lines with
laugh;
But the most maddening dranght to thyse and to me
is thv poem.
A true singer thou art. on thine song thou art
drunk"
Although these pages ALWAYS glow with i'm
agery, an imagery always suggestive. yet the
vehicle always chosen for lofty thought some