The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1893-04-20
GENIUS AS AFFECTED BY SEX.
4 Man Explains Why Men Are Poets and
Women Are Nat,

Man Explains Why Men Are Poets aud
Women Are Nat.
The male bird sings, the female does
not This is the broad general rule;
the few exceptions serve but to accen-
tuate the feebleness and uninspired
timbre of the female voice. Here we
have broad hint on very interesting
subject
Poetry is song; it began before liter
AZURE was thought of, when man was
as rude as the ull. It's exciting cause
was the passion of love, and it was
heard I'D the near vicinity of the nest
the lair, the home. 1t was called forth
by joy as simple as breath and as
natural
Anatomy shows that song does not
depend upon efficient vocal organs The
female thrush has just as perfect a
syrinx as the male; not a valve, not a
muscle, intrinsic or extrinsic not line
or contour. is lacking in the whole
windpipe, from the CLOTHS down to the
lowest bronchial extremities. Yet she
never sings a real song This suggests
that bird-poetry is the expression Of a
masculine sensation.
THE history of mankind shows a
pretty close parellel between it and the
history CT birdkind in this matter OF
snng-gift The need of passionate
rhythmical expression has been much
stronger in the man than in the wo-
man, and mans voice, physically speak
ing, has always been the more power
ful
This need Of expression is the in
spiration of genius; the stronger the
nature the more violent the need and
the greater the capacity of utterance.
No graver mistake can be made than
TO refer poetry to a basis wholly spirit
ual, unless the other extreme of refer
ring it wholly toa physical origin be
accepted; but that poetry receives its
initial impulse from the same source
that sngenders mere animal song can
not be doubted by the well-informed
physiologist
at seems to me quite irrelevant to
speak Of woman's lack of highest
poetic creative power as proof of her
inferiority to man. She is different
from him but not necessarily his in
ferior. Indeed, the art of poetry is pos
sessed only by exceptional men, some
Of whom have not been particularly
noble or in any way personally COM
mandinG beyond the magic circle of
song. We have been made to see with
in the last few years that women have
intellects quite as powerful as men
have when il comes to directing large
affairs, overcoming great difficulties, or
mastering abstract scientific studies.
There are now living women rail-
road presidents, mine operators, stock
raisers and manufacturers, bankers
steamboat captains, and merchants as
successful as men in the same offices
Indeed. the time is gone by for any
doubt as TO woman's ability to succeed
in all the practical affairs of life just as
easily and just as fully as men.
but they are not men, any more
than men are women, and they never
can be- This is equivalent to saying
that they are not poets of the largest
sort and never can be. A golden ex-
ception, like Sappho, merely fixes the
general rule. There may have been at
some time a chance female mocking-
bird which sang the dropping song; II
ever one did this she performed mas
culine act-a function of the male
nature.
81 have come to think that the high
est reach of art will be the Joint
achievement of a man and woman
working together as a completed in.
dividual representative Of the human
race. This is the only collaboration
worth trying, the collaboration of man
and wife under circumstances of pecu-
liar happiness, as when genius WEEDS
genius, and when love, health, and
mutual confidence combine to urge
their joint lives into a single bloom OF
art Like two birds that are mates,
building their nests in perfect com.
munity of labor, these happy married
poets might blend their natures in a
poem impressed with all that the
noblest and purest impulses and aspira-
tons of humanity can mean."-Maurice
Thompson, in n. Y. Independent