New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-01-08
RECENT poetic Y.
WRITER'S OF THE WEST AND THE EAST.

AFTERwHlLEs, by JAMES wHrrcoMp RILEY. lGmo.
PIP I6O. Indianapolis: Bowen Merrill Company
THE WHITE SAIL. and Other Poems by LOUISE
IMoGES GUINGy. l6no PIP l4S. Ticknor & Co
"Aftcrwhilcs" is a word compounded by Mr..
Riley to exprcss that indefinite By-and-l'y toward
which are directed many Of our hopes and our
good intentions II is the title of some graceful
stanzas which printed as the procm OF his little
volume; but it has other application TO the
collection for the characteristic note OF his poetry
is lis absorption in the immediate familiar present
and its Indifference TO vague aspirations. Mr..
Riley has jumped into popularity with his dialect
pieces printed here the second and lesser part
Of his book, but aiTording n better test of his
merit and a more complete explanation Of his sue
cess than he perhaps imagines. Verse Of this sort
never takes hold Of the people unless it has some
higher quality than ingenuity i'll the use OF sole
cisms, ard realism in copying vulgar speech
some substantial excellence, like native humor,
enforced sentiment, pathos or moral lesson,
which the eccentrcitics of dialect serve only to
point and illuminate Mr. Riley's comedy, even
when most amusing, has its serious side. lhe
dialect which he cultivates would probably be
defined as that Of the lioosier region but 1t Is
rather the loose, ungrammatical, forcibe and racy
idiom OF a class than the peculiar speech OF "a
locality. References to the prairie country seem
to fix the landscape background of the authors
groups and figure pieces; yet almost anywhere
between the Hudson and the Mississippi we might
find his men and women on the farms and IN the
small towns. lie is the poet Of hOmely life III
rustic and scmi-rlstic communities OF bomcly
virtues and affections, Of hOmely incidents, OF
homely SORROWS. We use the word homely III its
larger sense which implies something OF planness.
sincerity, and aptness for the common experiences
of common life. Sentiment which falls under this
H.. nf milf tim ~ adj
mircrs, as many a poet inferior TO Mr.. Riley has
found to his profit: pieces like " Canary at the
Farm "Nothn' to Say" " Like his Mother used
to make and e" Griggsby's Station" never fail
of their purpose. Here the dialect is not part
of the substance of the composition, as it is in
such studies as the wonderful Uncle Remus" :
but it is powerful aid TO the effect when the
very language OF the village shop, the field, and
the farm kitchen expresses the simple emotions OF
unsophisticated people.
Neither the dialect nor the sentiment would
be true to nature without free admixture OF
humor; for in his most emotional moods the ord-
nary plain American never loses his sense of the
grotesouc, and indeed ID is when his feelings are
most deeply moved that he is apt TO seem drollest
Mr. Riley is extremely fecitous In the adaptation
Of the vagarics of pronunciation, ungrammaticai
construction slang and other materials Of what is
called dialect, to comical uses, and he shows
deliahtfu 1T in the preparation OF those humorous
surprises for which Iokers are supposed to have
a special talent. The last stanza OF piece called
" The Tmin-Misscr" Is a good example OF the
tickling unexpectcdncss which leaves the reader
with pleasant sense of being fooled
Ef could jcs' sneak round behind
Mysef, where l could git full swing,
I'd lift my coat and kick. by ing!
Till jcs' got jcrl<ed up and fncd!
Fer here 1 stood, dern FOOLS APT
To- and let that train jes' chufi and eh0O
Right apast me-and mouth jes' capped
Like d blamed old sandwich warped In two!
The love OF surprises and incongruities is at