The herald., 1894-08-19
rHR BRYANT CENTENNIAL.

About three months hence the birth.
place OF William Cullen Bryant. the
little village of Cunnington, in the
Hampshire hills of Massachusetts,
is to celebrate tine one hundredth anni-
versary of the poets birth, Great prep
arstions are being made for the recep-
tion of visitors from all parts of the
union, and the programme of literary ex-
ercises will embrace gems of thought
from the deepest thinkers and most
brilliant minds OF the nation.
!, And yet Bryant may be truthfully
ssid to have been man whose claim to
fame as a lyric writer rested wholly
upon one poem. his Thsnatopsis, written
whsn he was less than 10 years OF age.
His other efforts in early life were very
mediocre, one of hie best being the
Lines to Waterfowl written on
q summer night in the Catskill noun
tains, in the company of Joseph
Rodman Drake and the artist, Robert
Weir. 1t commences:
"whither amid falling dew
While glow the heavens with the last steps
Far thro' the rosy depths dost thou pursue
Thy solitary way?"
The inspiration was far different from
that OF DR.. Drake, for on the latter gen.
tleman's return to Kentucky he wrote
his ideal poem OF The Culprit Fay,
which for deep love of nature, coupled
with strong fanciul and poetic imagery
has not its peer in the entire English
language. The nearest approaches TO t
are Hogg's Kilmsny and Coleridge' 3
Christeb bel, both OF which fall immeas-
urably below it. Torsuk Bryant. there
fore, with either Longfellow or Whittier
is simply preposterous and as for the
alleged poems of his advanced years,
they were the veriest mass of drivel ever
put in print. To rank him in the frat
row of American poets is therefore
gross injustice. He no more belongs
there than does Bayard Taylor, whose
sole claim to prominence rests upon his
little lyric of the soldiers singing Annie
Laurie in the trenches OF Sebastopol on
the night before the storming OF the
Nalakotf.
Yet there was much to admire in the
character OF Bryant. He was for years
brilliant and vigorous journalist,
under whose tuition graduated such
able litterateures as John Bigelow and
Parke Goodwin. He was leader Of SEN
timent in day when the best news-
paper was the one that was the most
removed from the trashy sensationaliem
of the present era. He was for clean
politics in the Democratic party, and
bitterly opposed to the rule of the Tam
many ring. Even had he never written
his only really great poem, his mark on
the literature Of America was en- indeli-
BILE one. for he WAS man OF upright
methods and pure thought.
Hence it is that we. of the far west
ern coast, feel q greater pride in Bryant
a. journalist than as poet. All the
gorgeous scenery OF the Pacific invited
his muse in vain. The ieathery cascades
OF Yosemite roared with the melting
SHOWS Of spring; Hood lifted his tempest
crowned head into the zenith and
pierced the azure with cone OF eterna
snow, and the Goods great temples" ol
Calaveras soughed with summer breezes
that bore on every zephyr the fragrant
incense OF the forest aisles. But they in
vited the bard of Hampshire in vain
The harp that had thrilled with the
mystic rvthm of Thanatopss was
mute, passionless and cold. For all the
good be ever did to ths bold and heroic