New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1893-01-29

| Nov. eastward. happy earth. ard leave
Yon orange sunset waning slow"
Are We NOT tho gamers By this stride from the
frurative 70 the concrete2 The poets them
selves are sometimes inclined 20 say no. precious
kind Of illusion SCENE 10 have irrevocaby passed
when one of the old poetic properties has had It's
| bloom disturbed bv scientific investigation
The1e wa, on awful Iainbsw once !" se syrn
| In the duh catalogue Of common things.
Yet Keats himself in whom some o: the character
| istics OF Spenser, Shakespeare ana Milton were
| born anew wac doubtless the better for writing
| in an age Of widely d.nuscd knowledge Tho
| natural magic OF Keats is far from dscreGitng
the natural magic Of his three predecessors IN the
| art Of embdlming in song
rha, VI" srs sMIe .IS"' bank Of vcc,s.
Stealing ard giving odof
But that is an extraordinarily pregnant observa-
ton 70 which Mr.. Stedman refers, that "a Para
| disc Lost could not be written In this century.
even by Milton" Modern criticism upholds this
stortly and modern poetry bends to it tacitly and
sometimes with every Circumstance Of rcnuncia-
ton. Dr. IIakes recent declaration Of faith in
"The New Day" will be remembered
The poetry Of old Is built on dream
But scicnee shadows ' forth the nobIsr theme
OF wondrous Nature be II sung by YOU
Science and Nature. wnlting hand in hand
Now on the threshold Of the New Day stand.
Tn these lines OF Dr. IIakc's we touch not only
specific problem OF modern poetry, but the kernel
Of the poetic inspiration in any time. Ours is n
scientific age And while ii is the business Of the
poet to interpret beauty to the ages quite as much
is the duty laid upon him Of Interpreting his age
to itself The history of literature proves this.
The Elizabethans had the poets they required in
Shakespeare and his satellites Dryden Is cmphati-
caly the choragus of his time; the Georgian era
| 800 Loar in oapius
Of Pope; and in cur later period the ministries Of
Byron Wordsworth and Tcnnyson have been reared
upon the spiritual necessities Of their times. In
all countries this has been So. Goethe, standing
head and shoulders above his age. was yet alive
TO the huX and iefuX Of its aspirations ana its
struggles For when By virtue Of his greatness
poet is in advance Of his age. he is 80 in correctly
gauging the value, the capabilities. of its current
forces and in forcseeing their elimination. The
moment he ceases to sympathize with his age he
is behind It, 1t Is only upon the consistent poet OF
time that the dcdicatOry touch of eternity de-
sends The test may safely lie applied even to
the most bir,llikc Wrists and the most rap' makers
of pure poetry. Though we did not know from
other sources that all his life long he had felt the
fermentation of the European politics Of the last
years Of the eighteenth and the first decade, of the
present century we could identify in Shellcy's
tude of the modern mind has never been more OK
qui.itely reflected in poetry than in "The Worlds
Wanderers" And absolute poetry. In Mr.. Wattss
phrase as "Kubla Khan may be- the Colcrids"
OF this merely beautiful thing is certainly the Colr-
ridge of the superb "Ode 10 France" less pas
sionatey moved Coleridge, perhaps. but still in
distinctive tone the same No poet can strike
sparks from his own heart who has not felt the
throbbing Of the heart Of the world
This book of Mr.. Siedmans is itself peculiar
product Of its time Matthew Arnold one Of the
last and most llIstrious holders OF IN" Office III
England which Mr. Stcdman occupied in America
when he delivered the lectures of which this book
is made Matthew Arnold, writing in the atmos-
phcre Of Oxford. an atmosphere pulsating with
ethical tonics ard finding in Wordsworth the lott
lest achievement of modern ENGLISH verse, de fined
poetry az ~ criticism Of life, under the conditions
fixed for such a criticism by the laws Of poetic
truth and poetic beauty" Noble "a this concep-
ton is and unqucstonablc a it, truth j. up 10
certain point il ncvcrthc less leaves its author open
10 the charge Of forgetting that spirit OF do
tachment for which he fought with ~ much deter
mination. II does not deal with poetry in and for
itself but with the purpose. the intention Of po-
ctrv And il owed iis fall from Arnold's customary
disintcrcstei standard Of criticism because ia" in
huences of his life made il impossible for him q
regard ethical content with any less feeling than
he did Arnold has been dead hut a short time;
he was contemporary Of Mr.. Stcdnan in the
fullest sense of the word. But 40 rapid are the
revolutions of timc and so radical are the differ
ences Of nations. that although only few years
have elapsed between the death Of the English
poet and this critical performance Of the Ameri-
can, that performance is not alone new, hut in
stinct with the characteristics Of a new decade.
In compleXity OF thought, in adaptability 20 in
Vulnerable ideas with a capacity for their utterly
unbiased consideration, we have the note Of the
best OF recent culture. IL is an old note. IL il
the note Of all true culture, ancient and modern
But IL is especially the note OF that culture OF the
present day which has come TO realize, with morr
than ordinary fulness-in the case OF some through
wisdom and in the OF others through weak
ness-the fntility OF rigid line Of thought His
fcxibility Of judgment and his unnlnching anay
sis are what, taken together with the eoquence Of
his dcton, the great extent OF his knowledge and
the constituencies Of his sympathies, make Nj Sted
mans book true literature. In the pages follow
ing that from which we have quoted his definition
of poetry he traces its clauses through their ram-
6cations with ucidity, polse. which never per-
nit the subject Of discussion TO escape from is
position OF relative as well as independent signn-
canoe. Ranging over the whole field Of poetry
for illustrations TO point his dissertations on
beauty, for example, or Imagination. or passion,
or faith, his insight into those qualities and into
the opponents OF them with whom he deals Ian
insight continually finding expression in finished
epigram, serves to guide the reader swiftly to tho
truth The impersonal creative character of all
pagan and OF the greatest Christian dramatsts
the introsprcton OF modern poetry and the idenii-
Hcation OF the muse of Christendom with Mclan-
choia as she is depicted in the frOntispece TO the
volume-a reproduction Of Durer's famous plate
the endurance of charm and the charm OF evancs-
cencc, the Protcan nature Of Imagination. the
teathless power Of genuine feeling the inaienable
isolation Of poetic gcniusof all these matters. and
Of others going like them, to the root Of the sub
i IL. -