The Irish standard., 1896-05-02
RILEY IL THE Ho0aBR POET
isf ,$&s4 5{z ,Na t-lt 5f5S fEStE3tGs! -
Sidelights Of the songster Of Old
Boone Told In Poeti {
Way.
Burns and Riley Compared as Be-
ing the Most Alike of Any Of
the Others.
An Analysis of the Poetry of the
Indiana Singer Pleasingly
.sz.s Presented.

Indiana Singer Pleasingly
Presented.
When I set down to feast of this here
man Riley my soul jes nachelly curls up
j. and purrs.
X There are writer's that take Pegasus on
gidd.er flights of fancy, and writer's that sit
him more grandly, and writer's that put him
through daintier PAGES. and writer's that
burden.him with anguish nearer that of the
dead Rider Of the White Horse, and there
are writer's that make him a very bucking
hroncho Of wit, but there is no one that
turns Pegasus into just such an ambl:ng
nag at lazy peace and pastoral content as
James-I had almost said Joshua Whitcomb
4 Riley, If you want a panacea for the bit
terness and the fret and the snobbishness
and pretension and unsympathy and the
commercial ambition and worry and the
other cankers that gnaw and gnaw the soul,
just throw a leg over the back of Riley s
Pegasus, perfectly safe for family driv-
ing" let the reins hang loose as you sag
Imply In your saddle and gaze through
drowsy eyes while the amiable old beast
jogss down lanes blissful with rural quietude,
through farmyards full of picturesque rus
tics and through the streets of quaint viii
lages., Then utter rest and peace akin
to bliss possess your soul, says writer In
4 Godey's.
: To make readers content with life, and
glad to live is one of the most dazzlingly
magnificent deeds in the power Of an artist.
This is too little appreciated in the melo-
dramatic theatricism of our life. This gen
ius for soothing the reader with pathos
that is not anguish and humor that is not
cynic:sm, this genius belongs to Mr.. Riley
In a degree have found in no writer in all
literature
n or course Mr.. Riley is essentially lyric
poet But his spirit is that of Walt Whit
man; he speaks the universal democracy,
the equality Of man, the hatred of assump-
+ ton and snobbery, that our republic stands
for II it stands for anything. Now down
right d.daGtic;sm in a poet is an abomina-
ton But if poet has no right to ponder
the meanings Of things, the feelings of man
for man, and the higher criticism Of life,"
study of mankind is man." you add "na-
ture" and natures God,' you will fairly
well outline the poets field.
Mere art heaven save the s'mere!') is
not and has never been enough to place a
poet among the great spirits of the world.
It has furnished a number of nimble mando.
linIsts and exquisite iilettants for lazy
moods. But great poetry must always be
something more than sWeetmeats; It must
be food, temptingly cooked, w:nningly serv.
ed, well sp:ced and well accompanied, but
yet food to strengthen the blood and the
Sinews of the soul.
Therefore I make so bold as to insist
4 that even in lyrst there should be some~
thing more than the prosperity of the dirge
ofspersonal amours; there should be SYM
pathy with the world Joy, the world-suffer-
Ing, and the world kinship. It is this atti-
tnde toward lyric poetry that makes me
think Mr.. Riley a poet whose exquisite art
u IS lavished on humanity so deep-sounding
as to commend him to the acceptance Of
immortality among the higher lyrists.
Horace was an acute thinker and a frank
speaker on the problems of life. This di-
dact.cism seems not to have harmed his
artistic welfare, for he has undoubtedly
been the most popular poet that ever wrote
4 Consider the magnitude and the enthusi-
asm of his audience! He has been the per-
Z s6nal .chum of everyone than, ever read Lat
( unity. But Horace, when not exalted with
his inspired preachments on the art of life
and the arts of poetry and love, was bit
ter cynic redeemed by great self-deprecia-
ton and jovialty. The son OF a slave, he
Il was too fond Of court life to talk democracy.
Bobby Burns was a thorough child of
< the people, and is more like Mr.. Riley in
every way than any other poet. Yet he.
too, had a vicious cynicism, and he never
5 had the polished art that enriches some Of
Mr. Riley's on-d.alectic poetry, as in parts
u y, OF his fairy fancy, "The Flying Islands of
the Night
Burns never had the versatility of sym
pathy that enables Mr. Riley to write such
unpastoral masterpieces as "Anselmo'' y
'1The Dead Lover" "A Scrawl,'' 't1he
Hcme-Going," some of his sonnets, and the
noble verses beginning Z,
"a monument for the soldiers!
And what will we build It OFF,
r Yet 1t must be owned that Burns is IN
general Mr.. Riley's prototype. Mr. Riley
admits It himself, in his charming verses
s ITO Robert Burns
Sweet singer, that I lo'e the maist
II \ o. tony, sin wi eager haste
I sulacket bairn lips over the taste
o. hinnsed sang"
fss The classic pastoral poets. Theokritos,
Virgil, and the others, sang with an exquis-
I tie art, indeed, yet their farm-folk were
4 really Dresden china shepherds and the
# #shepherdesses speaking with affected SIM
\ psicity3or VITA impossible elegance. Theo-
K kritos like Burns and Riley wrote partly
Y In dialectsand partly in the standard speech
a. ana to those who are never reconc;led to
1 anything that can quote no authority
a there should be sufficient justification for
dialect poetry in this divine SsciEan musi-
clan ofs whom his own Goatherd might have
4aasd: IN M \. # ,s 81 HI y y
Il Il .'.F III, ,lll of fine honey thy beautiful mouth
Was a. ThyrsiS created sss. s Sg1