Arizona silver belt., 1894-05-12
rExrem, rAnESpum.

while we hail we wish to admonish the magazine critics who seek to disparage the genius that bnrns 80 brightly ih the recent aquisition to psetry's treasure. The disiiie efiiatue pent up, and smoul- dering, has broken into flame, and were i. not for tlie tihkind reference of the warped aad withered critics the world it large could enter into the spirit of the modern poet and pick here and there the golden threads of his fantasy and drift ahl so happily with him in his wayside minstrelsy But alasl the critics have not approved of the new riches and it now behoves the devotee of Browning, tue apostle of esoteric Buddhism, and the desciple of Madame Blavatsky to quicken their pace else we fear, We gravely fear, that the classics may survive the century. Now to the frayl Let critics cavil as they may We pledge our moral support to the strug- gling poet in his flight to perpetuate noble epic poem. The poem. and that it is one ia not disputed except by the critics, presents some of the most charm ing pictures to the romantic mind. We select at random @ few of tho choice bits of portraiture. What could be more comforting to the pensive mind than tho following:
 Say? Shall the soul snoop at gig glesome glee.
 To be sure the word "snoop" is not commonly used but what of that; every one but the wretched critics see the beauty of the thought it conveys and furthermore what word can draw so forcefully the conception of glee as the word "gigglesome." Still the critics bounce down from their aerie and se- riously-very seriously contend, aye, angrily contend that the quotation is not poetry at all. Their wrath is still luther provoked by this excerpt:
 ''Now swivel me swift from the surg, ing spring, I am weary of the world and wind; and the grewssme graik of the jabberwok comes iimmering to my mind"
 We can see in these sweet lines the timid soul of the poet seeking reclusion from the insipid thoughts that pervade the world His spirit soars, it flies aloft, and commingles with the bands of ye olden bards. He steals from the flowers of Milton and his fragrance blends with the roses of Wardswoth, the pied-eyed daisy of Burns and is dipped in the delicious dew of Shelley's fairy raiment And as the "grewsome graik of the iabberwork" has faded into ths tints of twilight this inspired ge- nius breaks grandly forth in lines We cannot refrain from quoting,
 "Oh, where is the swing of the swoonful swish and the voice of the springiul sprole? "Must the blue mist break OCT the mellow drale, and freight with their frought my soul?"
 We answer no; and if we can prevent the blse mists from freighsing their froughe on another mans soul We shall do it, even though the magazine critics suffer the agohy of the damned.
 The gentle reader may judge of tho quality of the poem from what We have taken the liberty to quote audwhen we affirm that, despite the bitter denunci ation of the critics, the poemas Gwh ol' if far ahead of anything heretofore written we feel assured that the gen erous pubic will flock to our standard in the defense of the modern poet We incidentally might have mentioned the name of the poet and the title O the work he has bequeathed to mankind womankind and childrenkihd in gene ral, but, gentle readers (and otherwise you all know him by his work and fur ther elucidatiou would be not onl. superhuous but would be tacit re preach on your intelligence We leay him thus and if this slight defence ma. comfort him we have accomplished worthy deed and we ask nothing thu may not be easily complied with whe we request the critics and reviewer who have scorned the poets lines, to COG their angry brows lest the public laugl them from their high seats in maga zine literature.
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