The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-10-16

in both England and America. This is
true and we need not go far to find
reason for it. The age is one of most in
tense and increasing utilitarianism in
both England and America, and such an
age cares only for such light poetry as
amuses, diverts and recreates the mind,
just as fiction does. There is nothing in
the thought, mood or manner of popular
life in England or America upon which
great poet could feed or by which he could
be stimulated to effort that would be ac-
ceptable to the public. During an age Of
reform" like that which prevailed in
England and America from 1885 to 1865,
the eloquence of poet has a chance to win
the public ear, but with these questions
either sunk out of view by solution or
dismissed in despair of settlement, there
is nothing in the present situation that
makes great poet possible, and the past
has already been exhausted by the great
singers Of the century. The clever verses
of society get hearing easily today, and
no department of literature is so thor
oughiy and so profitably worked as the
field of fiction. A busy, commercial, util-
itarian age likes to be amused, but it is
great poet, whose genius must rest on
gravity and dignity of thought and ex-
preston rather than brilliant but shallow
fippancy of utterance.
The taste for the Longfellow school of
poetry is about exhausted; the poet that
best pleases the American reader of today
is rather of the school of Holmes, who has
no peer among our poets as q writer of a
stirring lyric, a copy of witty verses of
society. or poem of pure sentiment and
refined pathos. Beyond the height of
Holmes the American even of intelligence
and culture does not care for American
poetry, and what is true of America is
fellow is greater popular favorite
than the immeasurably greater poet,
TennyJon. Clever verse makers are
common enough in America, but a
poet must be q thinker as well as
verse maker; he must have noble ;magl-
nation as well as metrical skill. The So
called popular poets please the ear, but
they are destitute of poetic Imagination as
separated from a light quality of poetic
fancy. Any person that has poetic taste
and feeling enough to enjoy Shelley's
"SkyIark' or Keats Nightingale" Will
| understand the vast difference between a
| lyric poet and a mere maker Of coherent
/ lyrical verses Lyric poet. are rare, while
| ambitious makers Of lyric verses are found
| in every country village in the civilized
world.
II was Matthew Arnold who once said
! that if he wanted to determine whether a
man enjoyed poetry in distinction from
merely good. vigorous verse. he would ask
| him what he thought of Macaulay's LAYS
! OF Ancient Rome" which Mr.. Arnold
! justly maintained were not true poetry q;
all, but merely fine, vigorous verse. the
work Of mere pinchbeck poet, who was
as far of from the level of lyric
! poetry as Rider Haggard is from the
| level of Walter Scott's fiction. Mr..
! Arnold pointed out that Macaulays
| verse turned into prose would not make
I poetic prose ana WAS terse, not poetry. The
! muscular hero Of Guy Livingstone" Is in
! love with these Lays Of Ancient Rome"
! because they are, ike himself, full Of fight :;
/ full % what Burns calls 'Sturt and strife ."
/ But Campbeli's Mariners of England" is
! more than good verse; 1t is spirited no.
| etry.
The mcttoT flag Of England
! shall yet terriGc burn
! is not mere verse, II is thought in poeti.
/ as well IS mere metrical dress
| So with the lines
Her march is on the mountain vsys
| her home IS on the deep
They are more than .ryse; are poetic in
/ thought. On the other hand Macaulsv's
| Lays Of Anient Rome" are seldom sny.
/ thing but good, vigorous, resonant prose
! rendered INFO verse. Here is a hackneyed
! stanIa from HoratIus;
For where can rnsn die better
Than facing ieSFfGi odds
For the ashes IF his father
Aai ;he temp IS o. Ais godsf
! Til. is nothing but pr0saic statement
/ rendered into verse. ana II las no poetic
! Imaginative quality about 1t. Neverihe-
/ ,ess slch verses are very popular and pass
| current as poetry; IN truth they are popu.
/ lAr chie1y because they are not roetrv.