The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-03-03

They have some severe and uncompro-
missing critics of literature out in Chicago.
An indignant parent recently wrote to one
of the papers to say that he believed at
tention had not been called to the iniu-
dicious character of a song which he had
found in a book used by the primary
teachers in the schools, part of which ran
as follows:
How doth the little crocodile
Improve his shining tail,
And pour the waters of the Nile
Ger every golden scale.
How cheerfully he seems to grin,
How neatly spreads his claws
And welcomes little fishes in
With gently smiling jaws.
MY recollection of the habits of the
crocodile" this indignant critic of nature
study in the school goes on to say. lis that
he doesn't live on fish at all, although
he is said to catch birds in the way de-
scribed. That a little child's attention
should be called to either fact. however.
in a civilized schoDl-room. seems in
credible; and to give it humorous turn
as the author of these lines seems to
have tried to do, is simply monstrous."
This is quite as funny as anything in
Alice in Wonderland" but Mr.. Carroll
does not suffer alone in being made the
victim of such ruthless analysis. There
is a class of intellect that Is congenitallv
impervious to poetry, and by one of ma
lures kindly compensations is made equal
ly insensitive to humor. a feeling for
which might raise disturbing doubts.
Like the Scotchman so well known to
fame, they Joke wi deedculty." and also
hold that these poets say many things
that they can't substantiate" There is
DR.. Alexander Balm, for example a beau
tiful specimen of the class to which the
Chicago critic belongs His works
on logic command our admira-
ton, but when he ventures in
to the field of poetic criticism it
reminds one of bull in a china shop. In
his "Poetics" he quotes from Paradise
Lost:
The broad circumference
Hung on his shoulders like the moon.
and comments with much acumen that
anything comparable to the moon could
not be supposed to lie on the back of any,
imaginable figure" And in treating of tbe
| familiar lines by Dryden:
From harmony, from heavenly harmony.
/ This universal frame began
he says: Dryden has probably been
| caught by the double meaning of bar-
| mony namely, as a musical quality and
/ as an orderly arrangement opposed tn
| chaos. At all events, as regards the
first two lines he has made the mistake
! OF referring without any authority the
origin of the world to music" 1t is when
! he essays Shelly. however, that he shows
to most brilliant advantage. Such men
always do for some mysterious reason
devote themselves to this most ethereal If
! poets. He quotes the dazzling lines
from THE Skylark":
In the golden lighting
OF the sunken sun
and then remarks with the utmost erav-
ity that " the golden lightning seems a
doubtful conjunction. The epithet is
not applicable to lightning The meaning
is made more clear If we read Tighten
ing an emendatiCn actually adopted
by Chambers 'Sunken sun scarcely CON
tributes TO a picture of glorifcation; the
word 'sunken is associated with de-
preston and pathos. No doubt the poet
sought to vary the common designation
! of the setting sun " IT is needless to
say that when DIR. Balm passes on to the
! line Thou dost float and run" he finds
it impossible TO see how there can be
such thing as running without the use
of legs.
1t may not be true that science and poe
try are incompatible, but it sometimes
| happens that the scientific spirit is Gull
| tivated to the detriment of the estbetic
sense as well as that of humor The Chi
cago critic is enrolled in a goodly compa-
| ny, which includes the learned German
/ savant whom Richard Grant White cites
as advocating the reading in Hamlet:
He smote the sledded pole-ax on the ice
| instead of Polacks, a mistake which no
! one with even rudimentary sense of hu-
NOR could have perpetrated. But, indeed.
/ when we enter the vast field of Shakes
| pearean commentaries, we pick up such
| curious nuggets of stupidity at every 9th
/ or step. Perhaps the most glaring in
| stance was that where Mr.. Golfers MS.
| cOrrector undertook to improve upon that
! affecting touch in Mrs. QuclSly's account
| of Falstaffs death. And his nose was as
/ sharp as a pen, and a babbled of green
/ fields" by substituting, And his nose was
/ as sharp as a pen on table of green
! frieze" This was actually hailed in some
/ of the English review as most fortunate
/ emendation.
] a. IL 80 -