The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1892-12-20

In the OLD SURROUNDINGS, leaves ho,hihk
to be desired;
Our ss hard, ras s,a lines 2, q NE; with her
II woman lost us Eden. such
AS she alone restore IL.
And when, In pleasang afternoons, the
youthful huskers gather, the poet no
longer protests that "samp and milk. by
home spun beauty poured" is his ideal.
No! In the huskiDg- bee, the sleigh drive,
the sugar-camp. pond-lily excursion, at
the pple-paring-on all these typical
occasions
The coarseness OF a ruder time
Her finer mirth displanes.
Each rustic sport she graces.
II isevident the poet has learned that with
''richer thought, fancy's freer ranges"
have come new capacities OF enjoyment,
roundings. The farmer also at last
learns the meaning OF the Hills. They
stand for the old-new home, the new
New England OF the poets faith.
1t would seem as though Whittier,
from the very beginning of his second
period, had entertained the idea that
| rural New England would have to he
lifted up amain into the atmosphere OF
beauty and art by some new force. Al
times 1t Is "a foreign element. as in the ex-
| quisite gem, Marguerite" pearl
worthy the name it bears. At other
times it is au engrafting of the education
and refinement OF city life upon the old
| stock.
In fact. from "Maud Muller " to "The
| Pennsylvania Pilgrim" Whittier has
shown liking for other nationa! infiu-
ences, which should blend with the life
OF New England. Stedman took excep-
| ton To the name MAUD " for New
England girl. and we must be grateful
To Linn for IL, for 1t led Whittier To pref
| ace the following note to the poem ia the
Il lnS bal l...I xaAa D( Ia
| The recollection OF some descendants of
Hessian deserter IN the revolutionary
| war bearing the name OF Muller doubt
| less suggested the somewhat infelicitous
u lie OF New England idyll."
Whittier then tells us OF IA journey with
his sister, during which they met the
original OF Maud Muller raking hay, aud
] IL Vas in conversation with our poet tnat
| she strove to hide her bare feet by rak-
ing hay over them, blushing as she did
so through the tau of her cheek and neck.
| This Is delightful. The poem takes a
| higher rank at once, of association at
| least, II not as a work OF art, since Whit
| tiers own thoughts aud life are mirrored
IN II, however transiently.
| In "Cobbler Keezar's Vision" QS6l)
Germany is made 10 play a singular role.
| Cobbler Keezar-keIser, of course, an
honest old Rhinelander-represen a
natural good humor. sort OF animal
like instructive harmony with nature,
which does not. of course. go very deep.
Why should folk be glum. said Keezar.
| When Nature herself is glad.
| And the painted woods are uyhng
| AT tue faces 50 sour and sadt
IT'S work. work. work. he muttered,
| And for re st shuttle OF Isamsi
He sInote on mis- leathern apron
| With his brown and waxen palms.
o for the purple harves,s
Of the days when was young
For the merry, grape-st,ined maidens.
And the pleasant songs they sung
o. for the breath of the vineyards.
| or apples and nuts and wine
| Down the grand old river kline!
A tear in his blue eye glstened.
| And dropped on his beard 50 gray.
| Old. old am !, said Keezar,
| And the Rhine flows far away!
All this is Whittier's prelude to the
cold fact that the cobbler has no concep-
tion Of the sole conditions through which
true progress can be realized in New
England. lie does not understand
What sorrow of heart was theirs
Who travelled in pain with the births of God
| And planted state with prayers.
But the rejected cobbler is after all the
only one in all that settlement Of Puri-
tans, Quakers, Ranters, who
Secs the vision Of the world
| And all the wonder that should be.
Through his mystic lapstone he sees the
| should be in a century and a half. The
| dwellers In the land have themselves no
vision; they gropc, but they build sure
| Cobbler keeZar seems to figure as a very
humble modern Moses, who is permitted
| TO view the Promised Land, from the hill
slopes above the Merrimac in the early
day, but not TO enter in. Whittier de-
sires llght-heartedness, even jollity per
haps, in his new state. but evidently not
the German kind.
|
element in American life sort Of re-
venge in THE Pennsylvania Pilgrim" 3"
| Pastorius, the German American Quaker,
| the first to protest publicly in this coun-
| try against slave holding, was a man
after h,s own heart. The poem is pure
idyll. less pretentious than others by
Whittier but rejecting the Kindliest.
sunniest light of his genius. He fingers
fondly upon the garden scene between
Pastorius aud his Aencheus (Anna),
and almost before we are aware OF it, the
latter stands before us rs one of the
poets most charming creations. All his
agents for the uplifting of American
society are women. and of them Anna
Pastorius is by no means the least i'm
portant. 1t is as though some spirit
wife were addressing Whittier himself
when Anna consoles her husband with
the thought of the fulfilment which only
the future can bring to his plans and
longings, and particularly in the aboli'
ton Of slavery.
The dear Lord give us patience. said his wifs,
Touching with finger tip an aloe, ripe
With leaves, sharp-pointed like an Aztec knife,
or Carib spear, a gift TO William Penn
From the ran gardens Of john Evelyn,
Brought from the spanish main by merchantmen
See this strange plant its steady purpose hold.
And year by year, It's patient leaves unfold.
Till th young eyes that watched IT first are old.
But some time thou hast told me- there shall come
| sudden beau " brightness and perfume
| The century moulded bud shall burst In bloom,
| So may the seed which hath been sown to-day
| Grow with the years aud, after long delay,
, | Break into bloom. and Gods eternal yea.
] Answer q last the patient prayers Of them
| Who now, by faith alone behold It's stem
| Crowned with the flowers of freedoms diadem.
| Meanwhile TO feei and sun sr. work and wait
| Remains for us; the wrong indie III Il great,
| but love ana patience conquer soon or late.
1t was Whittier himself who behelc
the plant break into bloom, Whittiel
| ,,k.N raapad .vhpr- thay had sown ,phar