The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1890-09-26
VERSES TOn BAD FOR VIENNA.

An Austrian Female Poet Of Passion
49, squslched by tho Law,
Ee~ York Sun,
A high priestess OF the school, Of pas.
sionate poetry in Austria has just beer
tried In a Vienna court and found want.
Ing. Her name Is Frau sidonie Zerko'
Witt runwald, and for several years
she has been publishing verses compared
with which Ella Wheeler Wilcox's ante.
nuptial linea are but Mother Goose melo.
dies OF passion. Frau Xerkowitz. Grun.
valid, In a preface to her last production,
entitled "The Gretchen OF To-day" &C.
knowledged that she proposed to show
In the case Of Gretchen, "a perfect pic.
ture Of the swelling oful,hined passi, n
" ,ne point Of action, without any rs.
gard for the adverse judgment OF critics
that might object to her frankness."
She does this, she says, with the high
moral murpose OF revealing the misery
that may overtake the person who caused
the downfall Of another. To prove the
great truth involved in this suggestion
she thinks all means are justitiabie.
At the trial OF "Gretchen OF To-day"
Herr Won Soos, attorney for tho state,
argued that there was a limit to all
things, even to literary naturalfsm In
teaching great moral lessons. DR.. Ed.
mund Benedict, attorney for the passion
poetess and her school, replied at length
that in the revealing OF great truths the
license OF the writer should be unlim.
tied. His little plea for the passion
school has become quite celebrated al
ready Ia Germany and Austria, as an
epitomc OF the whole argument OF the
school Of passionate poetry among Ger.
man-speaking people. He said:
ut Is exceedingly painful for this vile
and mother to Bee condemned as immor.
al q work that she wrote with the sole
purpose Of giving US a view OF the soul
oil an unfortunate who loved without re-
serve and WAS betrayed without pity.
One-sided, BtiT.necked, conventional con.
sideration OF this matter ayails nothing
and means nothing. The idea OF an OF.
tense against immortality ia relative, and
changes with time and place, education
and conceptions OF art. Eleonore OF Con-
zaQo allowed Titan 10 record with bis
brush her unadorned beauty. Later
Canova perpetualed in marble the un-
yelled form OF Elise Berciochi, sister OF
Napoleon !. That was done, not long
centuries ago, and not with any detri.
ment to public morals. And now, here
ia a book, a very little book OF poems.
The question concerns the lyric, the e1-
PRESTON OF deep and real emotions OF
the human breast. Is there a limit
to this expr. ssion? Must we Say
to the lyric, so far and no farth-
err OF course, there may be lyrical
poetry that treats the man as soul and
soul only. But such q lyric teaches
nothing and means nothing, for its SUBJ
ject is IN unwholesome and unnatural
man, and consequently the lyric is I'M.
wholesome and unnatural as well as false
and inartistic. Why do We love the
great poets? Because they give US the
u%ndistorted, unadorned man. Look ut
the works in which they treat OF love
and passion. II only the spiritual be
allowed in literature, contiscate the
aud our masters OF the last CEN
tury. Suppress Goethe's Diary Vie.
lands 'Amadis.' 1t would seem that
the circumstance that an author is dead
was supposed to deprive his naturalistic
work Of all the supposititious evil influ-
attributed to a similar work OF the
The court ordered the c%onfscation OF
The Gretchen Of To-day" and no copy
Of this passionate poetry may now be
had in the Austrian empire.