New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1897-01-17

, ble Is that Whitmans point Of view OF Individual
ism and free optimistic virillty having appealed
! IN seine critics with peculiar force they nave
rapturously swallowed him whole and are pre-
I pared TO defend his work as poetry until the last
gasp How else are to account for the ac-
ceptance Of passages like the following!
His shape arises
Arrogant, masculine. naive, rowdylsn,
/ and eighty pounds ful-blOoded six rect
high. forty inches round the breast ana
back.
It is idle to retort that these lines are mere SET
forth in the spirit Of parody. whitman IS MS
own subimest parodist for 1t is when ne IL
taken just as Mr.. Burroughs would have us TAKE
him as "a law unto himself that we see how
far removed as he is from the plane OF the great
moralist poets with whom he is frequently
grouped by his Grass adorers. Lucretius. with
his turbid flood OF thought, gives you the unrnls-
taxable resonance Of a poetlcal imagination his
dlyinations his eloquence. touch the heart ike
stars revealed htfuly through flying clouds But
with Whitman there Is no sense Of heroic noDili-
~ concealed I'm the obscurities of greatness. his
mysteries are the mysteries OF common stag, OF
raw material waiting for some melting process
which when II comes. rejects the proffered heap
/ Alchemy can work wonders with TINS inert
mass Of platitudes. We have admitted freely
that his vigOr is TO some extent SPIRITUAL ana
! that II has n touch, just touch OF poetry IN IT,
But the bulk of Whitman il simply prosac SER
monizing uttered with more ruggedness IMAM
is customary among preachers IL leaves us
mari, upon those who like IT, 1t Is ephemeral and
unattractive to those who ask maker OF litera-
ture to be- in spirit at least man OF letters Mr.
Burroughs observes that I'VE can make little OF
Whitman unless allow him. to he law unto
himself. and seek him through the cews which
lie himself brings When try him by current
modes. current taste and demand of him formal
! beauty, formal art, we are disappointed. 10
this there is only one reply. namely that it is so
much the worse for Whitman. Moreover 1t may
be pointed out to the Whtmanites that While II
may nossihIy he wrong to test their idol by eur
rent modes current taste" it is quite legitimate
m tost him by the taste of all time. by the taste
which accepts Dante Shakespeare and the Greek
dramatists and. with them, men OF Words
worth's stamp or Arnold's or Keats's. 1t Is just
here that the Whitmantes make their MISTAKE
They think that to judge Whitman in the iisht
of literature from the Anthologists to Landor Is
trying him by current taste" No one could ne
so foolish. What is missed in Leaves OF Grass
is not the style Of this century. or OF the last but
Of the true poets in all ages, the poets who nave
an accent of beauty. Of divinity. no matter how
much they may differ from one another.
Whitman had no conception Of beauty at all
At long intervals he would disclose in line
that he responded to the sublimity of man, the
witchery of nature. But for the mos. part he
saw facts as facts. and the magic underlying
| them he left for his readers to supply. Ihey
have not been slow to fulfil the obligation ana
thus we have books like that Of NJ Burroughs
|
own word. are endowed with the glory Of pri-
mcval utterances. books in which the bald COM
monplaces of an egotist are interpreted as the
oracu!ar deiiverances of universal seer On
the whole it seems sadly misspent labor. One
may come to the literature OF the Whitmanites
with the best will in ths world, to Whitman
himself as to a poet whom ii would be com
forting to nnd-a poet. But there stand the
works. They the answer to all the hysteri-
cal admiration of the elect, and the first and
last question they inspire is simply, How nave
they ever stirred men to such extraordinary do
ings?' The in question, when they are
thus driven into a corner. are. rule. fam to
refer the nterlocutor to the Man. 1t is not al
together niudicious since the man in Whitman
was after ALL Emerson OWNED the best part
Of him
Mr.. Donaldson proves this in spite Of his own
eccentricities. He may descend to telling us
that when Whitmaa took a chair before his
house in Camden he usually sat facing the
east and with one foot against the tree" He
may enrich our knowledge further by saying
that "the chairs wooden ones" He is
preposterous enough when he finds that Sir
Henry Irving did not speak to Whitman. in the
latter's own home, until they had been formally
introduced. II presume the close and mixed
condition of society there dn England) makes
this so essential" He lays too much stress
also, we think, upon such facts that when
Whitman had turkey "he ate it thankfully;
when he had only bread and tea. he was thank
full" But must estimate Mr. Donaldson by
the general effect Of his book. and II he. like
Mr.. Burroughs. Is a little absurd in the serious
ness with which he takes his theme. he is also.
we should Judge. as accurate he is loyal He
portrays for us a man who had such HERO
phantic views about himself others had
about him. When he said. II loaf and invite
my soul" he meant just what he said He liked
quiet rumnaton, he liked life. nature, new
faces, journeys. He looked on at the great
human spectacle. saw what JOY and suffering
meant. and talked about II in his impulsive.
ultra-forcble way. The testimony of Mr.. DON
aldson's volume would appear to be that moth
ing could have surprised Whitman more than
a brcvet OF esoteric pre-eminence. He took his
ideas as they came and where he differs lin
nnitely to his credit from his maudlin COM
mentators IL in never pretending that those
ideas were drawn from out the depths of
tremendous scheme of thought. There is some
thing artess about him. something in his frank
ness which recalls Rousseau. But at
once. comparing him with any Of the
worlds great thinkers, that he had power of
ratiocinaton. All was fish that came to his
net He had sympathy that made him one OF
the most humane and benefcent figures in the |
Washington hospitals Of the Civil War but II |
his experiences there gave him limitations Of |
Immortality he could not control them in put |
ting pen to paper. Then he became confused |