The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1891-03-24

RETURNED. WITH THANKS.

LITERARY.
RETURNED, WIT THANKS.
It is a great mistake for the literary
aspirant to imagine that his returned
manuscript has committed any Offense,
or that his muse, if he has strided
Pegasus, cannot soar. What he must
do is to sail forth with it again, until
it reaches a favored port, which 1t will
surely do if il has the requisite merit,
somewhere and at some date. PreSl-
dent Lincoln used to say, when he was
trying faithfully and with great dill
gence to place the various able men
who were presented to him for the
civil service and for the army, that it
was a very difficult matter to get the
square pegs in the round holes and the
round pegs in the square enes. And 1T
is lust this difficulty which c%OnfrOnts
the writer for periodicals and maya
zines. No matter how experienced he
may be, he will often fail before he
brings his commodity to the market
which waits for it.
But editors do not wish to be cruel
or hard-hearted, however much they
may seem so to the unspurred and I'M
fedged writer. The very best and
most famous of them have often told
me that one of the sadest and most
thankleSs duties they have to perform,
is to return contribution that for some
good reason does not prove to be avail
able. When [ once wrote some verses
treating the necessity humOrOusly, l
had to apply to three editors in success
sion before [ could get them printed,
the first two assuring me sOrrOwfully
that the matter was quite too serious
to be treated with levity.-JOeL Benton,
IN the Ladies' Home Journal.
THE POETRY OF MR.. LEWIS MORRIS.
After a period of silence, in an hour
all too barren of poetry, the voice of
Mr.. Lewis Morris has been heard again.
"A Vision of Saints, his latter-day
epic of Christianity, is among the
largest and most ambitious poems pub
lished during the last few years. With
the exception of THE Epic of Hades, F"
it is much the most conspicuous piece
of work that Mr.. Lewis Morris has
given us; and we are not, we think,
taking too much for granted, if we
conclude that upon these two poems
their author would himself base any
claim he might possess to a lasting
appreciation. 1t is not, therefore, with
out interest at the moment to take a
short estimate of the value of Mr..
Lewis MOrriS'S work.
His first published poem appeared
in 1859, and thereafter for thirteen
years he gave no work to the general
public. His poetry, therefore, cannot
be accused of precOcity; perhaps of
all, English poets he developed latest in
life. His voice is no midnight sob Of
An infant crying in the night,
but the ripe, full song of maturity, as
it moves across it's harvest-field of life.
The poetry of maturity is naturally
approached by criticism in a spirit
different from that with which it would
encounter the first essays of bOyhOOd.
In the poetry OF extreme youth, we
expect a certain amount of imitation
both in manner and matter; the
views of the author are as vet unde
velOped; they are the result rather OF
study than experience, and admiration
of a single author leads to a wholesale
adoption of his thought and language.
1t is through this period of imitation
that the perfection of originality is
gradually evolved. But when the poet
has gained an experience, his verse
should gain / maturity; we may theI
fairly expect that the ideas he suggests
will no longer be the ideas of the
master at whose feet he sat as a boy
that he will have constructed for him
self al individual style, and an indie
pendent philosophy of life, affOrdine
us fresh material of thought, the crea
ton of his own powerful personality
Any just estimate, however, of the
poetry of Mr.. Lewis Morris canno'
overlook the fact that, in many cases
whole poems in his volumes are in
debted for their leading ideas to thu
works of other writers. To Tom Hood
to TennysOn, to arthur Hugh Clough
Mr.. Morris owes a good deal more thar
a passing inspiration. Mr.. Morrist
Two Voyages" is an almost exac
repetition of one of the best-knOw1
poems of ClOugh.
Wordsworth, seeking repOse from
the unrestful revolution of Shelley
found in the unideal aspect of tn,
fields" a fruitful source of inspiration
anddelighted to draw from the simplee
wayside flower Thoughts that d.
often lie too deep for tears" Mr.
Lewis Morris, turning from the day
dreams OF his greater nameSake, anC
the Greek and Italian models of Swim
burne, sought among the perils in tn,
city subjectsfOr reflection and exhOrta
ton. He endeavored to pass beyont
Wordsworth in the idealization of tn
scenes of simple life, and to reap from
fields the most prosaic a harvest O
new and earnest poetry. In doin;
this, he has not unnaturally stOopet
to some of the lowest commonplaces O
everyday life, in order to havein then
an image of the heavenly life.
Now, there was, and still is, room
for such a poet as this; for a poet, shal
we say of the commonplace-at an,