The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1894-01-16
NEW PUBLICATIONS.
Murray's Poems.

The Journal has received the following:
To the Editor of the Indianapolis Journal:
Do you ever mean to notice my book Of
poems in your paper? l nave waited more
must have gotten into the waste basket
OF course by some mistake. l therefore
tell me what YOU think of it in some near
issue of the Journal. Any KIND or crluclsm
is welcome, for nothing nor NOBODY can
change my opinion OF the book or OF myself
1 speak not as did King Robert but | re-
truly yours GEORGE MURRAY.
Orange. y. J., Jan. 10.
1t is inferable from this that the writer
believes that poets are born, not made.
and that having been born a poet he cannot
be unmade by any human process. His
volume of poems is quite a small one-so
small that it may easily have been over
looked amid the multitude Of weightier mat
tiers which reach the Journals table. In
fact, it is so diminutive as TO suggest the
idea that the author was In great hurry
to get out volume This is a natural am
bition. but ii needs judicious curbing. I'm
published poems sometimes improve by
lapse of time.
The forty-six pages of Mr. Murrays vol
ume contain ten poems in quite different
styles. ''TheChorister describes in heXaln-
eter verse the vocal performance Of
"A youth.
A boy of rosy years, who, if forsooth
Eye ever spake or poised head did hint
Was spirited above the common tint
What is the common tint? We know the
common herd the common crowd, etc, but
not the common tint as applied TO human
to be a rhyme for hint? The chorister
sang finely, and the poem contains some
good passages, but the heavy Miltonian
ment and philosophy of the poem are good.
In quite different style Is The Trav-
ia ia Of VOI1nc NQxy H1 M ma
went to see his best girl one winter night
through driving snowstorm He expected
TO receive from her warm welcome
But little rocked that wretched youth
What fiendS had made her heart their
throne;
He dreamed he there reigned king in truth,
AS she reigned queen within his own"
But there was trouble. She had become
awfully jealous, and treated him coldly.
Already half frozen, she froze the other
Obliged to ' leave The old folks ' acted bet
ter. Instead of turning out the gas or
ostentatiously winding up the clock,
In vain her parents. gainst the storm
Besought him tarry till the day
She gave but in half-hearted form
That half consent which meaneth nay"
So the young man went out into the
night, and storm, and darkness The poet
marshals the clouds, the winds and all
the elements against him, and Of course
he perishes. The next morning he was
found stark and stiff
''See where he lies, Cold still and white
AS the snow doth his body cover.
But yesterday he stepped full light!
This morn corpse,-last eve a lover"
The lines in this ballad are not I'M
musical. but the theme Is prosaic. Is IL
worth the treatment? The other poems
in the volume reveal still different styles.
and some of them are firSt-rate poems or
q second-rate class. The author seems to
take himself and his subjects very serious
ly, and his poems come near breaking
down of their own weight. His figures are
sometimes strained and his classic allu-
sions hackneyed. The sun is always Phoe-
bus, and the moon is a
Heavenly alchemist! that when calm
night
Hath driven the fiery Phoebus from the
Riseth in East to follow on his flight.
high,' etc.
Some Of the authors rhymes are open to
criticism, as radiance with '.penitence,'
door with awe" calm with CHARM =
board with abroad" Such rhymes as
these are a severe strain on a poets IL
a rule, the rhymes are good Sometimes
our author uses a Pathological or incorrect
expression, when he speaks or things
that harrow up the soul to pain" Shak-
speare speaks of narrowing up the soul,
but not of narrowing Ii up to pain. Again,
our author makes certain enemies OF the
peace lily from the field and sheathe their
weapons by" Soldiers sheathe their weap-
ons if they are swords, but they do not
sheathe them by"
Mr.. Murray has insisted on the Journal
noticing his book, and it has done So He
has in him the making of a poet, but he
has not struck his gait yet. Ii ne VIII Keep
on practicing, write a great deal, suppress
ing the most of what he writes and prun-
ing the rest he may sometime merit even
hptt than