Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1893-01-31

Htet NtftHf- fftt Nht ffH| htf We
Nttv Have fisesss tfsiss.
NJ Elmnh1 tlusss delivered M
rddteas NJ tIle hall N ilswhlinm ed
jeHe talnlHI11e. on "fbe pUwtfy D
wurnph taklDe ~ ihs Imflicula
test Tho Ifwfns N Christina Il,nseitl
No s,tind cfitic vii lfeiend TIM
woman hns added anything ~ tI'
sum N fnnIu attainment m THESES mn
jpr branches " nrt. The fuasoh Il
IxyafrntIy that The artistic nasufe Il
,vd stfniRly deveioppd IN her t3h,
Iihe energy, imagination, sentiment
iiteutlUn. bat she has not ths aftis
tic itnpulsc The cUnsiifnfnnte poets
~ the world have been gfcat Artists.
~ Hlinkcstfafe. CofhoiiIp. uueihc.
Pope aud isehlJ we see ihe artist
aliUve nll clse. above tIe innn Uf in.
tellef or vision. In much lower
rank ~ poets we find The vision or
the ethical bias JrepDndtratIng IN
sbe greatest men The art Il para
mount
But women. n the main entrances
seem 10 be denied them. fiscend into
The house ~ poetry by other doors.
Lyrical verse owes ~ much ~ thcfn
dirt we may easily forgive their
limited success IN other directions
The lyric. which isa spontaneous jet
VI music, nn ejaculation forced from
tho henrt Iy an excess of feeling, do.
mnnds less art than any other form
of poetry. II IL perhaps tho only
species VI poetry which eau bo ex
cellent IN its kind and yet wholly
artless. The border ballads have no
art. and yet arc esquisite and the
history OF poetry In adorned by Ger
tain female names which will always
preserve their freshness, and which |
yot were entirely innocent Of art.
Such are Emily Dronte In England
and Marceline Desbordes volmore in
France. We do not know whether,
With extended opportunities. women
will contiruo to show themselves In.
'ensible to or incapable Cf tho high
ut literary art. Hitherto they Ger.
.ainly have been emo or the other.
Any one whose privilege it has
been to enjoy tho friendship Of sue
'essflll women Of letters knows how
much more they nre always occupied
With literature asa profession than as
IN art; how little they gro able 10 con- I
eive the doing of work for its own {
AXE, not for its result; how consci.
ntious. industrious and persistent
hey arc. and how little they arc {
roubled with tho scruples and tho
issituGe Of the artist. II IL their
gric gift, their cry from tho heights
the depths Of feeling that las won
lem that place upon pmnassus from
'hich no De Quincy nor Guy de
laupassant can eject them.
have denied poetic nrt to women b
'ainly that l may give myself tho a
xury of attribntingit to Miss Chris 1
na l,ossetti. To screen myself from n
10 charge of extravaganza | will II
y at once that think tho main in g
rest Of the position Of this writer "
the history of poetry il tho fact Il
ut she indubitably possesses this Il
lality which 10 denied to many men m
genius and to almost all women. RI
~. Browning was n forco in ltera- a
re--a parsonage demanding uni IL
rial recognition for her intellectual a
wer, her majestic imagination and IL
r independence Of other literary al
iuenccs. but sho was not an artist. sc
at title applied to George Sand or pi
orge Eliot would bo equally u mis-, III
mor. What Lord Iennyson was, I'll
lat Flaubert was it 10 surely plain ht
1t these great women could not be. 81
( precisely this. in n restricted W
assure, 1t seems TO me that Miss in
ssetti In, md that isolation Of hers, Nj
apparently the solitary woman
It Of tho Anglo-Saxon race who
tivates poetry as ono of the finel
y. gives the study OF her verso an DC
ecial interest. st. James Ga. sa
10. in