The Portland daily press., 1888-05-08
Foreign Notes,
FULLER AS A POET.
The Chief Justice Begins with odes
to Topsham's Red-Headed Girls.

/
| The class of 1858 at Bowdoin College con-
tanned young poet destined to sustain inti-
mate personal and political relations with a
certain Man of Destiny, of whose existence
he never dreamed until at least thirty years
/ later. Melvillius Weston Fuller was writing
| odes to the silver moon that sh0ne upon the
| campus, and sonnets to the red-headed girls
| of Topsham, at the time when Stephen G.
| Cleveland was Drawing the panther's howl at
| Fayetteville. 1t has been generally, but er-
roneously, stated that Edvardus Johannes
| Phelps was likewise Bowdoin poet, and a
| classmate of Melvillus. That is not the
| fact. Edvardus first wooed the MUSES. in the
| classic shades of Middlebury, Vermont; and
he was in politics before Melvillius was on
of Paley. Nevertheless, Destiny has had her
| eye ON the three youths, and at last she
brought them together.
Through a series of political events and
accidents that has no parallel In history, it
| came to be the function of Mr.. Cleveland to
| choose between Phelps and Fuller for c hief
Justice of the Supreme Court Of the Un tied
States. In weighing their qualifications for
the high judicial post, did it occur to him TO
institute a comparison between their resp ee-
| tive poems? Probably not. The love OF
poesy and the critical knowledge thereof
that are in the Cleveland family are not in
Grover.
The two college poets do not cultivate the
same field of the Muses.. Their styles differ
as widely as do those of Cowper and Tom
Moore, or of Matthew Arnold and the late
Eugene Field of Chicago. We form our
opinion solely upon those specimens Of Mr..
| Phelps's and Mr.. Fuller's poetry which, up
| to the present time have been rescued from
oblivion The poetical taste OF the new
| Chief Justice seems to incline to the elegalc,
| the sonorous, the not too profoundly philo-
| sophical vein which renders some OF Long
| fellows poems so popular and so common
| place. Phelps's poetry is far more individ-
| ual. He is humorist, a satirist, lashing the
| follies and chastislng the nuisances OF every
| day life with sharp, snappy, and sometimes
slightly profane lines that have the crack OF
| a whip.
Compare, for example, the four rattling
stanzas of Mr. Phelps's acknowledged mas
| terpiece his poem on Essex Junction."
with the threnody which Mr.. Fuller COM
| posed three years ago for the Grant memori-
al meeting in Chicago The poem of the new
| Chief Justice begins as follows:
| "Let drum to trumpet speak
| The trumpet to the cannoneer without,
| The cannon to the heavens from each redoubt,
Each lowy valley and each lofty peak,
AS to his rest the great commander goes
| Into the pleasant land OF earned repose.o
1t is doing no injustice to the author of
| these verses to say that they are essentially
conventional. In nearly all, if not all mar
tial threnodies, borrowing the idea OF Shaks-
/ ptdIts tHc III opCdhc W buC tLumPCts uh0
the trumpet to the cannons ON the redoubts.
| Nothing of the usual furniture Is wanting
except the bugle note, and that is promptly
sounded in the very next stanza.. Nor Is
there any novelty or originality in the use OF
| epithets. Valleys are for the most part
lowly and peaks lofty. An analysis of the
| words which the new Chief Justice has mar
shalled in stately measure shows that there
is no vitalizing idea behind them. 1t is YER
siication, not poetry.
Now turn to the frs. stanZa of Mr.. Phelps s
fine poem on Essex Junction:
with saddened face and battered hat
And eye that told of blank despair
| On wooden bench q traveller sat,
Cursing the fate that brought him there.
Nine hours. he said, we've fingered here,
With thoughts intent on distant homes
| Waiting for that deusive train
Which always coming never comes
Till weary and worn, sad and forlorn,
And parayzed In every function
| | hope in hell
Their souls will dwell
Who first invented Essex Junction"
This is poetry. shocking as is its profanity.
Description, narration, and imprecatlon
alike bear the impress of vigorous person.
ality expressing distinct artistic purpose:
az hope in hell
Their souls may dwell
Who first invented Essex Junction"
Waving the theological question. these
virile lines are unquestionaDly the product
of genius The author Of the poem on Grant
could not have produce them, had he spent
half lifetime in weary waiting upon the
platform at Essex Junction.
For the sake of making the Supreme
Courts pOetical record complete, we print
the remaining stanzas Of the new Chief JUS
tice's most notable production. lt Will be
observed that what we have said OF the first
stanza applies with equal force to the whole
poem:
The great commander. when
Is heard no more the SOUND OF war alarms,
| The bugle's stirring note, the clang OF arms,
ONLY good fortune gave to him success.
Wien was there greatness fortune did not bless?
mot in his battles won,
Though long the wellfought helds may keep their
But in the wide worlds sense Of duty done,
| The gallant soldier finds the need OF fame;
| His life no struggle for ambitlons prize,
Simply the duty done that next MN lies
"And as with him of old,
| Immortal Captain of triumpnanl Rome,
| Whose eagles made the rounded glODe tnelr nome
How the grand soul 9f true nero1c 1ua tb,na
That peace might gather all beneath her wings.
"No lamentations here;
The weary hero lays him down 70 rest
AS tired infant at the mothers Dreast
Without care without a thought OF fear,
Waiting to greet upon the other shore
The glorious host Of comrades gone before.
Earth TO its kindred earth;
The spjrit to the fellowship OF souls!
, | As slowly time the mighty scroll unrols
OF waiting ages yet 10 have their birth.
Fame, faithful to the faltnlui, WiIees vi nign'
! His name as one that was not born TO die'
As mechanical workmanship this is excel
} lent. The lines do not trip, halt or falter