Fairhaven herald. [volume] (Fairhaven, Wash.) 1890-????, 1892-08-09

An American poet whose fame is es-
tablished on firm ground on both sides
of the Atlantic wrote some time since to
the editor of a leading American maya
zine asking if there was any room for
verses in his great monthly. The editsr
wrote back at once, my Dear Strive
have already on hand and paid for 5000
worth of first class poetry" The poet
wrote back instantly, "Then why don't
you print some Of itT'
This poet does not believe that the
taste for genuine poetical literature has
died out from the American soul. The
only trouble is, in his Judgment, that
the American public never gets anything
TO whet its poetic appetite. The trouble
is with the writers and editors. The
poet says:
do not believe in the present newspaper
doctrine that "the American people no longer
read poetry" believe they read II as much
as ever when they find any worth reading. II
they turn with disgust from the endless food
poured out by the Sunday papers, where's the
wonder1 The public seems TO have only
choice between this wretched trash DIT Is bias
phemy TO call Il poetry and the foggy, OBJ
scure, incomprehensible verse served up by the
magazines. Look at the last 5 poems"
nearly all written by persons never heard of
before-persons without reputation or expert
enoe or ability. Not one of them Is Quotable;
not one Of them voices any human emotion or
experience; not one appeals to any sympathy
Of the human heart. To the average intelli-
gence they do not mean anything.
/ -
letters from strangers, asking me for copies of
poems, for information as TO where certain
verses may be found and inquiring what mag
azines / write for, and why do not write
more, i shall believe that there are still per-
sons who read verse and who like what they
can understand.
think the trouble Is primarily with a few
magazine editors who. having little sense of
poetry themselves, think any metrical article
is poetry, and Is excellent in exact proportion
as It is incomprehensible. Newspapers do not
think verse worth paying for but they think
IL worth borrowing; and they can only borrow
IL from magazines--or publish the work of
mere tyros and children not out Of school. No
really good workman can afford TO work for
nothing.
A man may be a very excellent editor Of a
political, scientific, humanitarian, or even
strictly literary magazine, and yet have no
idea whatever of poetry or music; indeed, the
muslcal Instinct, hltnOuRn Tar from universal,
is much more common than the poetical Plen-
~ Of bright, intelligent well read persons are
no judges Of music. They never sang a note.
Would any musical composer think Of having
such persons decide on the merits Of an opera,
an anthem an oratorio?
Yet this Is what is continually done with re-
gard TO much rarer and more abstruse art
by the average editor. He seems to think a
poem" must be fine because IL has fine words
In 1t. IL must be profound because he does
not understand It. Walt Whitman's idea of a
poem was that 1t was an inventory cut into
lengths, and numbers Of popular editors are
quite as wide Of the mark. - has the idea
that II Is farm talk, chopped TO measure, and
- and - seem to think IL is anything
: they happen TO hear in the street, the kitchen
or the saloons, after they have tortured II
into given dimensions. And because some
hopelessly matter-of-fact man in the employ
/ OF the - happens TO know no better than
to call this sort Of trash poetry" the word
! goes out that ''the American people no longer
read poetryi"