The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1886-02-12
AMERICAN POETRY.

wv 'Viic WHY WHIT lfOiSUi'o" w hir
youth averred he was content to do!
Have we merely continued English Int.
eraturc. or are there genuine national
ity,an indigenous growth. an aboriginal
quality in our production hitherto? IL
is well enough to let the mind wander.
after Spenccrian fashion, over the dis
tant future. when from the attrition OF
our immigrant races Il new people shall
result, with literature of IFS own; but.
i'm that. pOsterity has the principal in
terest. Such speculation RAY Till para
graph; il is not the theme OF the chapter
There is an abundance of literary fos-
sils in our past, and from the study OF
them it appears that there was great ef-
fort at one time to breed a genus liner
icdnum to browse on the pasturage OF
Pegasus. Here are relics of epic, pas
toral, and lyric which belong 10 the pc
Rod of the Rcd-Skin. The mass of our
inspired writing about the Indians and
their myths was extraordinarily volum-
nous, and il seems to have sprung from
the notion that for our poetry TO be
original it must be aboriginal. A ma
tional literature. however, needed some
other voucher than the trick of local
color could give. 1t was rs if Swinbmne
should claim admittancc to Greek antho-
logies Oh the score of Atlanta or Erecht-
heus, or Shakespeare seek some Latin
apotheoss for his Roman plays. This
attempt of our earlier poets to develop
Il native literature by experimental va
ration was abortive The effort mere
" to be different leads usually only to
z. 4, H..
We're overanxious for the coming of Il
poetry as original as the very Burd O.
Fredum. The error of method is illus
trated by contrast with the Biglow
Papers. MIR. Lowell found-a living dia-
lect which was natural channel of
sense and quick, brief tenderness. Of
grit and humor and shrewdness very
near to sarcasm; and h., rs the poet
does, In making il tho mould Of his
own kindred spirit, Illuminated ii. The
BigloW Papers arc American in u mar
rover than the NATIONAL sense; they are
Yankee. but the "nCw birth of our new
SOIL beyond NIL cayil. Those who, on
the other hand, stroye to make the In
dian character means of imaginative
expression lacked power 10 subduc it,
finding it altogether too alien; with all
their efforts, the work they left OF this
kind is decaying fungus. Doubtless il
is ,r,,G that f.ongfellow, IN his Hiawatha,
was Obcying the same motive so far us
his choice of subject WAS concerned.
That poem remains the oinglc sIlcccSs in
its class; but it Is as little national in
itself us is Thackeray's Nirginians,
Mr. Sledman thinks j. ia best that
| poets should lake their topics from their
own land, but he sets forth very en-
phatically his opinion that nationality
is something that goes far below sucIi
surface matter a. The theme. The youth.
full artificc OF young America III waI
paint and feathers has PASSED into con.
Tempt. But without any special on con.
sciOus attention, did moi our poets prove,
after all, compalriui.. iinrG Is i far.
| reaching truth in the doctrine thai the
test Of II poems worth il the extent to
which the nation aisorbS IL. There ART
| poets poets, of course.--versrs for the
'.fit audience, though few but. 10 leay,
| the uucstiOn Of intrinsic rNc"ilrncp and
the liner qiiaiili.si az ciect spirits, it l.
| certainly an indication of some nation
al characteristic in poem il the pco-
Pile absorb II by preference. Now. with
the exception al Il few, the American
poets whom Mr. Strhman has selected
for detailed examination have been
| thus absorbed by the reading class at
large, and Intellectually speaking, hlat
means the nation, Bryant, LongfclIow,
unl Whini.r, arG Tapalarly iclt 10 be
oar own, not By birth Only, but by d
consanguin::y o; thought and charac-
ter; and in Il les. .:,gfcr the same il
true of the others. With Shakespeare
Milton. Burns. aa;i possibly Scott, left
out of the acco;nt. no English poets
come home 10 a'if li;"Rio 80 10 or own.
Wordsworth i.as :, literary, Shelley Il
poetic, constituency: even TCnnyson
has only haif-hcaGtcd vo3u,; bal with
Ffrv S'Se t-~----------.----I------
which have been mcnrioned, wp Dr'luye
that to our country to-day the word
poetry means. in real knowledge, care,
and affection. American poetry. NoI
is tins choice of the Am; rican branch OF
poetic literature one determined by Il
pseudopatriotism, or merely by near
ness to home market. There is Il real
community between the conmonalty
and the poets in what is coming 10 be
recognized as specifically American
character, in certain preferred modes
of looking ut things and in certain cs-
tabliShed moral yalucS-,JdHHdyU dL