Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1893-06-02
Light on Spring Poetry.

| IL Is doubtful If the Spring poem will ever
receive the same favor from the more re-
hned class of our people as the spring hat,
or the spring poet rs much consideration as
the spring costumer. The spring flower,
attractive though it be- holds secondary
place to the spring fashion plate, and the
| spring bird, though always welcome visi-
tor, attracts more by his plumage than his
song, and that too when nestled upon the
head gear OF some fair damsel. The law
that protects our winged songsters is pretty
rigid, especially when they are so fortunate
as to occupy high place on the person of
some lair devotee of fashion; but the spring
poet seems to share no protection either
from law or public opinion. And yet it is
probable that as long as the world stands
the spring poet will survive.
10 is in the soft season of spring that a
kind of soilening influence overspreads all
nature, not even excepting the poet. AT
that season the sap of genius seems to flow
afresh, and the leaves of Imagination vie
in proiusion with those OF the forest tree,
and too often, it must be said in the humilia.
ton and despair of the poet, outrivaling
them in verdancy. Now this may validity
be admitted by the poet himself, but IL is
saddening to behold one of our most patri-
archal sheets, and one too which has al.
ways prded itself upon its honor and fair
ness, pierce the humble and down trodden
spirit OF the spring poet with the sharp and
poisonous lance of rdiCule.
Is II possible that as the sun calls forth
The leaves and blossoms Of spring and then
shrivels them with the scorching heat of
summer, this oracle excitcs the growth of
poetic genus and then scorches il with the
fierce heat of adverse criticismp Let not the
lacerated poet, smarting under the stings of
the aged chroniclers wit and sarcasm, be
too severe in his retaliations against the
seeming Injustice OF the venerable dispenser
OF sunshine. Let him remember how natural
II is to turn with loathing and disgustfrom the
efforts of early childhood. This dispenser
OF sunlight has been through the mill, and
the crushing weight of the milestone of
memory may be grinding him very small
to day. Perhaps in overhaung some musty
issue of his chidhood-some faded sun bea IN
from the time honored lumnary-his eye
has inadvertently fallen upon a dimmed
spark OF his own genius. Or perhaps he re-
members that the spring poet of that day
was not only welcome to his columns, but
that the poets labor, exhaustive and hui
initiating, US he knows by sorrowul expe-
rlence, received its ust compensation, and
that, with the hardness of heart that too
often comes of prosperity, he mourns over
what he now considers sOrrowlu waste of
time or an Improbable Investment We
who felt the warmth of the first beams from
the aged luminary and now bask in the
sunshine Of its meridian glory, cannot but
mourn over this undenable hardness of
heart-this insensbility to early impress.
sions-this fOrgettulness of the friends of
his childhood.
In casting the eye upon some of the re-
Elected sunlight of the time honored lumin-
AIRY, there appear some reflections bearing a
halo,as follows: "Butchering Hogs, ""Apple- |
butter Boiling" "Corn Shocking, Maxi ng |
Cider" 1t would be sorrowful for Il life |
long admrer of the luminary to conclude |
that such is reflection of his own taste or
his own genius. But these metrical speci-
mems are not Of the kind that horries his
unpoetic soul 1t is not spring poetry-it |
is fall and winter poetry. 1t is the kind that |
recalls to mind the hard cider that fired the |
Imagination and the new boiled apple but.
ter that ticked the palate.
IL must be saddenlng to the heart of not |
only the spring poet, but to all, TO find this |
literary patriarch recalls with ecstatc de- |
light such things as administered TO his |
gustatory appetites in the days of his child |
hood, while he turns with OathiDg from |
that which in by-gone days delighted his |
esthetic nature.
The case would seem to present ques-
ton for the wisdom of the philosopher as |
well as food for the skcptic. We are led to |
inquire whether there is, after all, any con
stancy in man that is beyond the blighting |
effects of seIf-interest, and whether the as
sertion, that OF the spring poet, be II remem
bered, that first love is always the deepest
and most lasting, is true.
Let not the spring poet despair. The aged /
chronicler of the truth and dispenser Of sun
light il fast nDprOachinp the nrrioI of spconJ |
childhood, too often the period Of hopeless
desolation, when yearnng for the conf
dence and support Of a friend, the liberated |
poet, as well as the writer who, IL must he
confessed, is u little sore under the lightning
stroke Of riliculc from his old time friend
and patron, will be returned ~ the invigO
rating spring sunshine from which they |
have been 80 cruelty cast out
Comus, Md Y