New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1893-01-29
POETRY.
a POET IN PRAISE OF IT.

In these days when every one makes verses and
every vcrsiiier who fortunes his thought into
irregular form fiatters himself that he has dis
covered new rhythm when every twittering min
strel fancies he disguise his inability 70 smte
Apollo's Tyre by twanging hybrid instrument Of
his own dcvising it is well for some one to come
forward and with a voice of authority to proclaim
the nature and elements Of poetry. At a time
when the line separating the poet from the p0etaster
grows fainter and fainter every day in the eyes
of the world, it is good to be reminded of the
sacred inc0mmunicable note OF conservation to
high ideal of beauty which is associated with
poetry only when the latter is to Use Wordsworth
phrase, inevitable. This note is the property of
great Verse as the perfume is the property of the
rose, and it is just about as capturable by ono of
the unanointed. OF the eight chapters composing
Tie Nature and Elements of Poetry" Mr. Sted-
man has chosen to the last for his discourse
on the faculty divine, but the significance Of his
book is largely drawn from the fact that belief in
the divine inspiration of the poet is implicit
in its every line from the opening TO the
closing page, that this belief informs
succession of analyses which might have
been pursued in historical, a philosophical a
technical, in any but a poctical direction. in the
hands of any but pOetcal initiate let this
book is much more than the quintesence of intell-
gent enthusiasm Standing firmly on the EARTH
though his sympathies and imagination soar with
his subject, Mr. Stedman has gone as far as critic
could would to formulate the constituents of the
highest work Of man. Poetry defined in prose
strikes a hypersensitive mind as butterfly broken
upon wheel, and such mind rests satisfied with
the
Thoughts that voluntary mo
Harmonious numbers.
Of Milton, or the
High and passionate thoughts
10 helf own music ch0nted.
OF Coerldgc. But the keynote Of good poetrv il
sanity, and It Is an instinct of sanity of common
sense, winch makes for az understanding of first
principles Thus Mr.. Stedman takes up i'm his frs,
chapters the task Of disengaging the poet and his
poe'fy from all other men and things, and Of
searching Tor the very stun whereof the Muse
fashions her transsubstantial garments. 70 dis
cover what plant or moth supplies the slioeny
ilbre IN what heat what light the iridesccnt fab
rlc Is dyed and spun and woven"
Art is not only an expression, but a means ~
expression and poetry is poetry FIRST and foremost
Just rs special form of lingual uttorance ust 10
'ie ah'itlesis VI prose. lmmanent in many human
SOULS Is the divine lire, and 1t is tempting 70 mex
act human nature to regard divers manifestations
OF this fire as poetic. We make charm and poetry
convertible terms. and there is kind OF plausibtv
in this, for there is ia all the arts-in paiuting
sculpture, architecture music AN indeGnnblc son,o
thing for which the equally ndelnablc witchcry
OF poetry furnishes the closest analogy. Even
some works in language which are not poetry
seem to share the poetic nature. and Mr. Stedman
himself pa1ses to recognize tho rhythmic quality
IN writer's like De Quincy. Truly, il prose- ever
oordered oil the fire frenzy OF poetry II did 40
in THE Glory of Motion" and in certain fights
In the "Suspiria.' Consulting as he ex-
presses il, "oracles old and new sitting
the definitions of thinkers from Plato 20 our
own time, citing Sidney and Milton, Byron and
Moore, Wordsworth and Colerldee, Shelley and
Poe, Lander and Arnold, and many others. Mr..
Stedman arrives at this formula: Poetry is
rhythmica imaginative language, expressing the
invention, taste. thought passion and insight Of
the human soul" 1t will be apparent that the life
Of this definition dwells in It's first adjective, for
let writer have invention, taste thought passion
insight, and be lacking in rhy :hm. and though the
poet DO latent in him, he cannot write poetry
Take rhythm from genius which meets all the
other requirements stated by Mr.. Stcdman and YOU
have Browning Give it, to one in whom those
requirements are found. hut not always "by
kind Of native necessity" and you have q Swim
burne II is in the charging Of that rhythm of that
music, with message based on his vision of life
and things beyond life that the poet reaches his
aim-beauty. Beauty is confessedly not a sub
stance writes Mr.. Stedman; you cannot weigh
it with scales or measure It with yardsticIs; but
il lies in Migratory expression Of substances and
elsewhere he refers to the vibrations Of rhythm in
nature or in any episode of life, as thrilling the
soul. The law holds in poetry. Rhythm in poetry
is vbratory, AMI it is rhythm in poetry that thrills
the soul.
We think this elcy alton Of rhythm 70 the func-
ton of determining and saving quality in poetry
provides us with surer tombstone than any
which looks to what might he called the provinces
Of poetry. We SLY provinces, for although, as Mr..
Stedman shows, poetry has limitations which this
or that OF the related arts need not heed it being
powerless to move Dy the sensu0us charm of color
as painting by vividness OF substance, such
as is within the reach Of the sculptor, or TO sway
the passions with the inperious magic OF music.
IL is after all the most comprehensive OF all the
arts, taking all knowledge, all experience for its
dominion anc reaching the human heart with un.
surpassable directness in an infinite number Of
phases unknown to other forms OF expression. II
is useless TO attempt 10 fix the field or fields in
which the poet soulJ move no matter how liberal
the policy OF the critic, he is opposing himself to
the spirit Of liberty which Is as necessary to the
creative artist rs air is necessary " him. Me.
Stedmau reverts 10 the Gictum Of the Lake School
that poetry is tine antthess 70 science and his
discussion Of this topic reveals in equal measure
the penetration Of his criticism and the breadth OF
his view. lnstinctively he apprehends the dis
tinction between the poet and the scientist which
is to say between the savsnt and the seer. in.
sight and spiritual feeling will continue to pre-
cede discovery and sensation, he affirms. But in
contrasting tho Aurora Of Guides great fresco in
the Rospislipsi with the Aurora, or rather no
Aurora, OF modern science whose sun is an in
cantescent material sphere, alive with magnetic
forces, engirt with heterogeneous flame. and made
up of constituents or less recognizable through
spectrum analysis he simply leads TO the
principle that in poetry as everywhere else truth
is the great conserver anG not the destroyer If
the personcatioD of the antique poet Is exchanged