The Irish standard., 1896-05-02

and soul-warming about a splebeians met
atheists like Congregation" What
ortheopy could replace lines like these: 4
! 'Worter, shade and all SO mixed, don't
know which you'd orter
Say, th' wOrter in the shadd dder-shadd
| in the worter''' Il. n.
| One thing about Mr.. Riley's dialect
that may puzzle those not familiar with
the living speech Of the Hoosiers,sis his
spelling which is chiefly done as If by
the illiterate speaker himself Thus
srastneer-time' and "ornery" must be
Aeolic Greek to those barbarians who
have never heard of roasting ears = of
corn or Of that contemptuons synonym
for vulgar common" which is
smoothly elided, "or(din(a)ry. - Both
of these words could be spelled with q
suggestive and helpful use of apostro-
phes: roast near and s'or'n'ry. h
Jumbles like 'tjevver'' for did you
ever?" and the like can hardly be
spelled otherwise than phonetically, but
a glossary should be appended as in
Lowell's "Bigelow Papers" for the
poems are eminent,y worth even lexi-
con- thumbing Another frequent fault
Of dialect writer's is the spelling pho-'
netically of words pronounced every
where alike. Thus enough" is spelled
.<enuff," and "clamor," sclammer,"
though DR.. Johnson himself could new
er have pronounced them otherwise. In
these miss-spellings, however, Mr.. Riley
excuses himself by impersonating an il
literate as we'll as a crude speaking poet.
But even then his is inconsistent, and
"hollowing" becomes hollerin',' with
an apostrophe to mark the lost $ g.
that abominable imported harshness, that
ought to be generally exiled from our
none too smooth language. Mr.. Riley
has written good essay in defense Of
dialect, which enemies Of this form of
| literature might read with advantage.
But Mr.. Riley has written deal of
most excellent verse that is not in dia.
leot. One whole volume is devoted to
fairy extravaganza called "The Fly
| ing Islands of the Might good addi-
tion to that quaint literature of lace to
| which 1.-THE Midsummer Nights
Dream" Herrick's *'oberon's Epithal.
amiunn,' or whatever it is called,
brakes 'sCulprit Fay,'' and other bits
Of most exquisite foolery belong.
While hardly a complete success, this
diminutive drama contains some Curl
ously delightful coneeits like this i'm
provisation:"
Her face-her brow-her hair unfurled:
And O.; the oval chin below,
Carved like a cunning cameo,
With, one exquisite dimple, .swirled
With swimming shine and shade, and
Whirled
The daintiest vortex poets know
The sweetest whirlpool ever twirled
BY Cupid's fnger-tips-and so,
The deadliest maelstrom in the world!'
1t is strange individuality that Mr..
Riley has, suggesting numerous other
masters-whose influence he acknowl-
edges In special odes--and yet,aH di-
gested and assimilated into a marked
individuality of his own. He has stud
led the English poets profoundly and
improved himself upon them, till one is
chiefly impressed, in his non-dialectic
verse, with his refinement, subtlety,
and ease. He has a large vocabulary,
and his felicity is at times startling.
Thus he speaks of water "chuckling;"
! which is as good as Horace's ripples that
"gnaw" the shore. Note the mastery of
such lines as
"And the dust of the road is like velvet"
"Nothin' but green woods and clear
Skies and unwrit poetry
By the acre!"
"Then God smiled and it was morning!"
Life is "A poor pale yesterday of DEATH
And 0 I wanted so :.
To be felt sorry for!'
"Always suddenly they are gone,
The friends we trusted and held secure"
At utter loaf"
Knee-deep in June"
But cannot go on quoting forever.
Technically, Mr.. Riley is master of
surprising finish. His meters are per-
feet and varied. They flow as smoothly
as his own Indiana streams. His
rhymes are almost never imperfect. To
prove his own understanding he has
written one scherzo in technic that is
a delightful example of bad rhyme, bad
meter, and the other earmarks of the
poor poet. It is ezra House," and be-
gins:
Come listen, good people, while a story
I do tell & f{ F
Of the sad fate of one knew SO passing
well!'
The s'do" and the $50 are the unfailing
index of crudity. Then we have rhymes
like 'long' and along" (t is curious
that modern English is the only tongue
that finds this repetition objectionable;
moon" and tomb well and "ssbell"
and "said" and denied" are Others
and the whole thing is an enchanting
lesson in "How Poetry Should Not Be
Writtel.'
Mr.. Riley is. fond of dividing words
at the ends of lines, but always in comic
way, though Horace, you remember, was
not unwilling to use it seriously, as in
his
"--U-
Xorius amnis"
Mr.. Riley's animadversions on "'Adde-
liney Bowersox' constitute fascinst-
ing study in this effect. He is also de-
voted to dividing an adjective from its
noun by line-end. This is a:trick of.
Poes, whose influence Mr.. Riley has
greatly profted by Poe, by the way
was the book-reviewer OF this magazine
at one time ehue! how i rattle round
inn the lareg place he leftD In his dia-
lect poetry Mr. Riley gets just the effect
of the jerky draWl of the Hoosier by
using the end Of a line as d knife thus:
The woods & @ l.s
Green again, and sun feels goods
June!. "a
His mastery use 3of; the caesura is
notable, too: See Its charming despot-
ism in "Griggsby Station
II But it is not his technic that makes
him ambrosial, not the loving care ad
(nnbeum that smootIls the uncouthest di-