The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1892-06-19
OUR LITERARY BUDGET.
THE LATEST SCHOOL or POETRY.
Edmund Clarence stedman Criticises the
spirit of Modern Poetry-Poetry Has Be-
como tho Glowing Forge OF Words.

The latest school, with It's motto Of art for
arts sake, has industriously refined music,
color, design and the invention Of forms. But
its poets and painters show a kind Of self
consciousness In the ostentations preference
OF their art 10 themselves, even In their pros
tration at the feet Of "Our Lady Of Beauty"
Their motive is so intrusive that the result,
although alluring, often smacks Of artisan
ship rather than OF free and natural art.
Their early leaders, such as the young Tenny-
son and Rossetti in England, and Gautier In
France, Effected potent, a charming, sorely
needed restoration Of the beautiful. But the
Laureate has lived 10 see another example OF
his own saying that good fashion may cor
rupt the world. The French Parn ASSIGNS, the
Engllsh-writlng NeO-ROmanticists are more
constructive than spontaneous, and decora-
tive most Of all. They have so diiused the
technic Of finished verse that the making Of IL
is no more noteworthy than a certain excel
lence in piano-paying. They plainly believe,
with Schopenhauer, that Every thing has
been sung. Everything has been cursed.
There is nothing left for poetry but to be the
glowing forge Of words"
This curious, seemingly impersonal poetry,
composed with set purpose, finds a counter
part In some Of the bewldering recent ar
chitecture. The artist and the builder are
too seldom one. A poet, when on trip TO
New Hampshire, found large building going
up I'm a country town. "Who is the archi-
tectp' he said. non, there isn't any architect
settled upon as yet" was the reply; "rm
just a-building IL, you see, and there's chap
coming from Boston next month 20 put the
architecture into it, SO IL Is with a good
deal Of our latter-day verse. IL does not rise
"like an exhalationV IL is merely the simill-
tude Of the impersonal, and art for the artists
sake rather than for the sake OF art. It's one
claim to objectiyity is, in fact, the lack OF any
style whateyer-except that derived by the
rank and file from their study Of the chiefs.
1t is all in the fashion and all done equally
well. Even the leaders, true and individual
poets as they haVO been-TennYsOn, R0ssettl,
Swinburne, Morris, Sully, Prudhomme, Ban
Yille-Often have seemed 10 compose perfume
tOrly, not from inspired impulse. Read II ne
Earthly Paradise" that seductive, tranqu1l-
lizing, prolonged, picturesque rehearsal oi
the Old wonder-tales. Its phantasmagorlc
golden haze, so often passing into twilight
sadness, has yelled the quality OF youth ia
those immortal legends. What Is this that
Morris fails TO capture in his fOrays upon Tue
odyssey" the "Decameron," Chaucer, the
"Gesta Romanorum," the "Edda," Tue
''Nibelungen Liedp' Can u ever come agai =.
Has il really passed away? Did II wake lor
the last time IN those lusty octosyllaDic TO
mances Of the Wizard Of the NORTH, such as
"Marmiopv and the Lay Of the Last MIN
strel p, Careless, faulty, di1use as they were,
those cantos were as alive as Scotland herself,
and fresh with the same natural genius as
daining 10 hoard itself, that produced lhe
Wayeriey novels. If Scott has had no sue
cessor ii is doubtless because the age
has needed none. We have moved into
another plane. not necessarily lower, but
certainly different one.
With respect 10 style, Swinburne is the most
subjective of contemporary poets, yet ne mas
made notable successes in dramatic verse
chief OF all, and earliest the "Atalanta IN
Calydonn with whose aurOrai light new
star arose above our horizon. Nothing had
been comparable 10 its imaginative music
since the "Prometheus Unbound" and III
surpassed even that-tor its author had
Shelley for a predecessor-in miracles Oh
rhythmic'melody. The "Prometheus" surges
with its authors appeal from tyranny;
'Atalanta" is pure study In the Deaulllul,
az statuesque as if done In Penteiican marble
It's serene verse, impressive even IN the
mOnometric dialogue, It's monologues ana
transeepdent chordses-c0nceiyedin the spirit
of Grecian art, but introducing cadences I'M
known before-all these are OF the brst order.
The human feeling that we miss IN "Atalanta'
is, on the other hand, dramatic factor IN
Swinburne's Trilogy Of Mary Stuart. But IN
| his most impersonal work his fiery lyrical gift
and individuality will not be suppressed.
| The noble dramas Of Henry Taylor and
| Hengist Horne are more objective, but cannot
vie with swinburne's in poetic spendor.
Now, as you know, this unriValed voice is
instantly recognized in his narrative ro-
mances, or in any strOphe or stanza of his
plenteous odes and songs. The result is that
| his vogue has suffered. His metrical genius
is too specific, too enthralling, 10 be overriding
| endured. Thus the distinctive tone. however
beautiful, which soonest compels attention,
az quickly satiates the public. Tue subjec-
| tive poets who restrict their fertility, or who
die Young, are those whom the world can
ouiZes before their bones are dust,-Edmund
| Clarence Stedman, In the Century for June.
American and Foreign Schools.
President Eliot, Of Harvard University, has