New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1897-01-03
In maintaining It's title to that honorable dis'
tnction.
POETS AS SEERS.

The poet Is said to be the modern successor
OF the prophet lie sees the hidden causes anu
meanings Of things, and dlscerns the outcome
OF events long before other people unders'ahu
even their tendency. Doubtless all true peers
are i'm n measure. gifted with this power or IN
tuition or seership which alone makes 'he'r
message to the world worth the telling. iet oi
many we are obliged to confess that their 'Xer-
else of this Gift leaves much to he desired. I'D
these first DAYS of the new year, If we turn 10
the poets for true Interpretation of present-dny
life and tendencies. we will get 1t from very
few Some of them never touch this great q"es'
ton Mt all. being content to turn of pretty son
nets and cleverly constructed rondeaus aoo"'
nothing In particular. But others or them '""'
do essay to exercise the gift OF seersllp give us
little more than the old commonplace 10 the
effect that the golden age was In the more or
less distant past, and that life and manners TO-
day are growing worse.
Now there are two objections to this message
II such It can he called: 1t is not new, ana 1t Is
not true Exactly the same thing was sald by
the seers of the ages lauded as golden by MOD
crn poets and by some who are not poets Inc
tendency to view the days Of old through haH!
glamour. and invest its worthless with goldeh
aurcole is all but Irresistible; and. though IL ms
added picturesque charm TO the past that Is
not without its value ii stands In the way or
orr understanding the past and so proiiting by
it, How often. for instance. we hear gloritlca-
lions Of the simplicity. virtue and moral eleVa-
ton that characterized the days of Washing
tom Those were the golden days OF Inc iepup-
lie we are told compared with when the Ma
tonal and individual life Of to-day are bo'h COM
monplacp and mean. This view or the case ~
utterly false The good and earnest men WHO
lived in the days OF Washington took no such
optimistic view Of that time. They Thought mat
base and sordid men were in the ascendahc!
then. inst as some Of our modern seers tnink Is
the case today And Washington. whom the
revprpnt homage Of the Nation has lmmor'ai-
lied. was. during his lfe assallei with the
coarsest abuse. Where were the scers or that
day. to interpret its great movements ana throw
the light Of their inspired genius on the f'ndeIl-
cics of the time! Where indeed? Henry James
Pyc. the English Poet Laureate, was weaving
for himself thick mantle Of oblivion, in when
he and his Songs have been ever since en-
shrouded: and in this country. "tlre Hartford
Wits" John Trlmbul Lemuel Hopkins David
=,
pleased many by their melodions verse, but said
nothing that any intelligent citizen of the time
did not feel.
The fact OF the matter is. the poet is too mrcl
inclined to regard his mastery Of rhythm as the
proof OF his secrship: and the public il too much
inclined to let him do so. with the exception
of men like Shakespeare and Wordsworth. he
possesses no peculiar gifts of insight. and has
lust the same capacity to interpret his age that
any other Intelligent and educated man has.
Moreover. he makes the fatal mistake OF pro-
iecting the golden age into the past. instead OF
seeing IL in the future. where, if anywhere. it
really belongs We do not forget that OCCASION
ally poets have dlscerned this trnth The OLD
Hebrew prophets. who were not more prophetS
than they were poets looked forward ana not
backward for tn" ideal time Of happiness ana
goodness SO did Virgil in one of his famous
pocms And P0pc's line. Man never Is. but
always to be best" has become classic or
quotation But Pope certanlT had no glimpse
of tho truth that the good time coming has its
roots i'm the present time. which must also be
good I'm n measure Nearly every poet thinks
that he Is living in an age Of iron or Of brass.
And for his heroic ideals he is wont to go back
TO the so.callcd ages OF chivalry, which were
really as cruel and brutal as they We're pictu-
resuue. failing 10 discern the heroism and the
high endeavor of to day. because men wear pot
hots and trousers instead Of dOubet and hose.
or two modern poets however, this Is not true.
Trnnyson and Browning. whom many would
classify rs the two greatest poet-prophets of
this century. really saw some Of the glory and
beauty and worth and promise of the present
underneath Its prosac and sometimes mean eX-
terror: and each in his way made the world his
debtor by telling what he saw.