The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1894-07-08
aAcArEAr. sTEvEssos. KIrLIss
eonss Doyis on the BzfIads az His
Three Fsrorlfs Writers.

eonss Doyis on the BzrIads az His
Three Fssorlte Writers.
Certainly. Maesaiay's usns Of charity
u this Instance lessons ones sympathy
Tor him IN the cases N which be Is him
sell the victim Of unjust or ill-nsturec
Criticism There Is. tor example, the ia
nous and fataous remark Of Brougham.
And there Is Matthew Arnoid's onslaught
upon the glorious Lays ] confess that
ny own confidence in Arnold's criticism
received great shake when / read his
opinion upon that point, and | felt that .
man who has once shown sach want OF
sympathy and insight discounts 20 some
extent all his other opinions. The verse
which he fell foul of was:
and how can man die better
Than facing fearful odds
Tor the asaes Of his fathers
And the tszn pies OF bis gods.
as this poetry" cries Arnold. and
makes II the text Tor depreciation OF the
Lays. EvIdeatly The badness OF the idea
and OF the Language had displessed him.
But this Is exactly where the merit hes.
Aacaulay IS quoting the rough. blunt
words With which simp.e-mlnded soldier
appeals TO two comrades to help him in a
deed OF valor. Any high-fiown sentiment
would have been absolutely out OF char
acsers The lines are, / think. taken with
their context, admirable ballad poetry,
and l felieYe no one bur Scott or Mac
aulay could have written them.
Inere is one other man, however. who
writes ballad poetry so well that IL Is not
10 be bettered- | mean Stevenson, whose
thin little volume OF poems stands upon
the next shelf. / only wish be would do
u oftener, Tor II Is the form OF literary ex-
preston to which his genius peculiarly
lends itself. Those quaint turns Of speech
and archaic phrases which occasionally
put the slightest possible stiffness into his
prose Though they also continually pro-
duce effects which are in no other way at
tainaoie) are always charming in ballad.
To me personally the Ancient Mariner"
Is the finest narrative ballad in our !Itera-
ture, and Stevenson's ''Ticonderoga" IS
the second. He can touch the weird,
vague note which haunts the imagination.
have slain man to my hurt,
have spilled his soul in the air.
You can not forget that second line.
And IL is all so exquisitely finished through
out Every line - beautifully polished,
There are no weaklings. Now, with Kip
ling, whose poems, as you see. / have
placed alongside of Steyenson's, you can
not say this. His rush and FIRE and swing
are just as good as they could be. His
sense Of meter is extraordinary. He is
the Swinburne of the canteen. But his
~
one, rising to the highest aud then
dropping lower than one cares TO see it
dropl Take the ballad of East and
West" for example, ballad which would
have set Scott dancing with delight all
round the Abbotsford study. What could
be more splendid than some OF the lines
Look at the description OF the young
chleftain:
lie trod the ling like buck in spring.
And he lookel ike a lance in rest.
What description Of alertness and gall
lantryl But then We come suddenly on:
Aud when he could spy the white OF his eye
lie made the pistol crack.
That last line really does get below
zerol Ii is like coming on an acorn
among the nuts.
But still for all of the faults Kipling's
'Barrack-room Ballads" will, | think,
have an enduring place in our literature,
and If there are drops should be the last
TO comment upon them, for there are few
books from which have had so much
pleasure. They are only too catchy. Ii
becomes epidemic. When "Mandelay'
got into my household we all caught il,
down to the children and the maids. 1t
would be too much for me to say that
know the book by heart, but / might
safely claim that if anyone quotes
a line l can give the next. Who
would ever have thought that
such effects could be got out
OF cockney English and our commonplace
Tommy. Look at the Ford, ford, ford,
of the Cabul river" What dirge 1t is
Most threnodies. Lycidas Adouais, and
the rest of them hit you only on the head,
put this simple little thing, with hardly
an in IL, goes straight for your heart,
and, after all, that is what threnody Is
meant tor. But dare not begin TO pick
my favorite bits of the "Barrack-room
Ballads" Let me quote only one other
line of kipling:
Heart OF my hearts, is this we'll donef
That is q good text for man to have
painted above his mantelpiecei Ii hangs
above my own, and / fancy 10 steadies
one, even if one has too often to answer
in the negative Doyle H Demrer
Republican,.