The herald., 1897-02-28
LEGENDARY MYTHS AND
MODERN FACTS

graceful mythologtes of the classic land
in the Illustrations and embellishments
of our literature. Poets who have gath
cred their metaphors from the land of
the Iliad, or slaked their thirst at the
fount of Castaly, or culled their flowers
from honey-bearing Hymettus. have
oeen crowned as the worlds laureates.
We pay homage to the Greek. not less
in our use of the beautiful mythology,
which spreads such an enchantment
over her literature, than in copying the
productions of the chisel of Phidias or
Praxiteles. But, while many of the
NEUROLOGICAL illusions incorporated in
modern literature are Of the highest po-
etical beauty. many of them would
burst into ''airy nothings," If the cold
scalpel of truth were to touch them. In
our difference to the beauty of Grecian
mythology, in order to adorn a tale or
point a sparkling rhyme" we have
given the air of fable to much of our
imaginative literature.
Were we to bring the same tests of
truth to bear on many Of the Illustrations
which are used to give classic touch
to modern poetry, how we would clip the
wings of many a young poetaster! Take
that idealistic figure Of the Phoenix.
What young poet, when under the influ-
ence of the divine aff1atus," has not
felt that nothing but the tabled Phoe-
nix" would express the thought which
was throbbing in his heart? How could
he even express the idea of resurrection,
or indestructibility if this favorite bird
should prove to be no bird after all?
Ornithology does not speak of such a
bird, yet we cling to it in our poetry, as
though it were a sacred heirloom
handed down to us from Olympian gods
themselves. Take another illustration
What modern poet has not used the
fabulous melody of the Dying Swan"
to illustrate the pathos and beauty of
some angelic strain, waited to him in
blissful dreams? This attractive fable
is the common property of all poets, and
is often used. 1t isa pity that this beauti-
full sinile cannot bear the test of truth
A few years ago, Mr.. Waterton of Eng
land had a pet swan which he had fed
from his hand. The swan becoming
G oil 1aff bo 1ol nd
lawn to die. Mr.. Waterton, in describ-
ing the death scene in Blackwoods
says: HE soon became too
weak to support his long neck in an up
right position. He nodded and then
tried to recover himself; he nodded
again, and again held up his head, and
at last his head fell gently o. the grass,
his wings became expanded a trifle, and
he died while I was looking on He
never even uttered his wonted cry, nor
so much as a sound, to indicate what he
felt within" So much for the melody
of the Dying Swan"
Take another metaphor, which is in
terwoven in so much of the verse Of
modern times, that of the Dead Sea
Fruit" beautiful to behold, but turning
to "ashes on the lips" Now, it is a sad
thing to show to the aspiring poet that
this whole figure, when touched with
the wand of truth, turns to ashes more
easily than does the fabulous fruit it.
self. Yet this is so, ard though it is a
beautiful puff-ball we must tell the
ruth and let it go to pieces.
Classical history gives no more touch
ing illustration of a consuming grief
than that of Niobe, who was changed
from excessive grief over the death of
her children into a weeping statue
Byron sings this beautiful idea ard
weaves it into highly poetical apostro-
phe to Rome.
THE Niobe of nations! There she stands,
Childless and crownless, in her voiceless
woe.
An empty urn in her withered hands.
Whose holy dust was scattered long ago"
And no one will deny the beauty of this
and the felicitous image it
gives to the poet, yet the truth compels
us to say it is all fable.
How often does it happen that, when
wishing to give name to some seraphic
harmony floating upon the air, poets
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the fingers of Sunrise seem to draw from
the statue of MDmnon? This simile has
given its soft ctloring to many modern
poems, and 1t is exquisitely beautiful,
but the statue OF Memnon. with its in
visible harp, is all poetic fiction.
These illustrations from ancient
might be indefinitely ex-
tended to prove that the greater part of
modern literature has drawn from clas-
sic and legendary fountains many of its
rarest embellishments.
Homer lived in the days when these
fanciful ideas first crystallized into
form, and hence they abound throughout
the Had. Shakespeare and Milton,
Goethe and Leasing, Schiller and Byron.
Keats and Poe, and a thousand lesser
poets have wandered back to those fabu-
lous fountains for their inspiration and
imagery, and with those rich Tyrian dyes
they have adorned modern literature
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