Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1890-03-08

she keeps up a big establishment sepa-
rate from that of the king. Their love
for each other and the example of the
Khedive in having but one wife is catch
ing, and many of the older noble Arab
gentlemen are following it
The Closing of an Epoch.
Lord Tennyson's latest volume of verse
and Browning's last have an interest that
appeals to the critical habit and enforces
q retrospect and prospect rich with sug-
gestions Looking back over sixty years
between 1880 and the present moment,
how many commanding poets do we seer
The inquiry gives rise to an examination
into the proofs OF what constitutes the
gift or quality of command. Many charm
ing poets have scarcely a trace of the
controlling power that has always charac-
terized the few great masters of song.
To write verses in the best form of art,
and to flood the lines with bewitching
music and exquisite coloring, and TO en-
rich them with fine grouping of imagery
may satisfy mere critical tests but to be
able to make poetry through which
bA~at PoAOoAAtshty hoAAo viz sAN"ko'.Sf 's%~
taste, or the aspiration of period is not
to be a mere singer; there comes in
force that no critic may gauge with his
song meter. When Tennyson's star began
to rise above the chalk cliffs Of England,
Goethe's wonderful orb was sinking be-
hind the vine-clad hills of Germany.
Just then there was a lull; the zenith
was the darkest part OF the sky; morn
ing and evening smiled Mt each other
across the world. The period of the old
romance-force was closing, the era of the
new was opening. Hugo and Tennyson,
the two incompatible Wrists, were the
stars that sang together over the fresh
ly re-created world. Hist ny alone can
tell us how the epochs wear themselves
out by grinding an old order of things
into chaos upon whose formless face
Creator shall come to walk, to say, Let
there DO light, to recast the substance
of things. to speak into life new and
universal idea, to give fresh Significance
to the ancient, indestructible materials
of civilization, and TO flood the Whole
sphere Of experience with fascination
never before dreamed of. But we all
derido history and fall in with the petty
curraats that blow this way and that
botween the great regulating and trans
forming gales Of the equinoxes. The com
manding genius comes with his season,
docs his appointed work, AND withdraws
he rs like the storm spring and autumn,
whiSks NJ as he wills while no lives but
no sooner does his power begin to wane
than we set our faces to welcome a
weaker and milder--a less exacting-n
nos . positively eneryating influence
Az tAs moment the hysterical puryeyoKs
OF ioouoclasm are getting ready 30 beiittfe
TsRayson- They have already howled
themselves hoarse in derision of Hugo.
In Our country we could scarcely wait
for tho coffin Of Longfellow to be covered
before attempting to reverse our opinion
Of his poetry. The experience of Robert
Browning while he lived will probably
always consist well with that of his fame
after death, for his faults set him outside
the well-defined boundaries of art. But,
after all, is there not precious lesson
inclosed in the history of poetry during
the past sixty years. What if we are
forced to admit that Of all the poets who
began singing about the year 1880 but
two have been great? What if we must
go further and say that Browning and
Walt Whitman are classifiable only as
erratics2 We still have the comfort
afforded by the fact that in no period of
the worlds history was there ever sixty
year space into which so many notable
poets were crowded? In France, Eng
land, and America, if the lists were made
up, no perfectly sincere critic could fail
to find surprising catalogue of lyrical
poetry, all of it produced since 1880, and.
in its volume, variety, artistic finish,
wealth of color, and picturesqueness of
imagery. unrivaled by the song of any
sixty years of the worlds history We may
say that we are too near it to judge, and
doubtless we are, but certainly we can
count names and makes inventories
The contemplation of the task of merely
numbering the noteworthy contempor-
aneous poets and their notable works is
of itself enough TO impress any fairly
judicial mind with sense of the injus-
tice we are doing ours Ives by overlooking
the tremendous lyrical fecundity Of the
present time Public Opinion.