The herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1893-1900, 1898-07-17
Ode to the Memory of Keats

Rich in the simple worship of a day.
John Keats.
Ode to the Memory of Keats
(By Lloyd Mifflin.)
Thou vast the Muses. favored one,
Whose syllables were as benson
To heal our mortal ills.
Thou, who didst honey from Hymettus rob,
Thou, in the minds celestial Parthenon,
Hast filed thy niche, where all about thy
lips
The stone CLOVIS with white eloquence,
Making the silence throb. =
Yet, o sweet poet-thou who Hest hence
Under that slab pathetically small,
Like one white lily thrown outside the
wall,
Upon the Roman grass-this was thy doom:
Within a callous peoples laggard tomb,
Which Is henceforth, to us, a shrine,
To lie forgotten long;
Silent those lips of thine.
Nurtured upon Olympan wine
Wet at the Heliconian spring divine,
And made immortal by immortal song.
Mr.. Barry, In the Literary World writes
this about the publishing business about
this time:
III the war is over by autumn, publish
.ers say that their trade is certain to have
q boom. At present it is in a state of
collapse. 1t always falls off in summer
however, and if we had to have war; it is
fortunate it came just when it did Fiction
has not for long time been at so low q
discount as 1t is at present. and the more
t.mid publishers are anxiously waiting
for cessation Of hostilities. Even the
newspapers are said to be suffering from
4 I,n oil ctr hon
apparently thriving. They are injured,
however, in the advertising columns, which
are far more profitable to them than the
ubiquitous extra
The above is all true and reasonable
And there is still another thing that inter-
feres with the established order 1t is the
matter of pictures, and written matter of
all sorts fails to catch the eye even, much
less hold ordinary attention. Writers for
periodicals complain that they do not sell
matter as formerly, and that they are in
sore straits for income, since everybody
now calls for pictures everywhere, and the
printed page is almost wholly neglected.
How long this will last no one can tell, but
the case just now goes heavily against the
writer and In favor of the illustrator.
UNCLE ROBERTS GEOGRAPHY. BY
Francis w. Parker and Nellie Lathrop
Helm. D. Appleton & Company.
This is another of the Appleton Home
Reading Books which series has been so
approvingly spoken of in these columns
before. For many years the teachers Of
the common schools of the whole country
have been benefited by the inventions of
Col Parker, who is at the head of the ia
nous Cook County Normal school in Chica-
so. And now the whole country is under
obligations to him for inaugurating this
valuable series of books for young people.
FAMILIAR LIFE IN FIELD AND FOR
EST. BY F. Schuyler Matthews. Uni
form with Familiar Flowers "Fa-
mailiar Trees and Familiar Features
of the Roadside With many illus
trations. 12mo Cloth, s1.75. D. Ap-
', pleton & Company.
Amongst Mr.. Matthews books perhaps
Familiar Features of the Roadside" has
been most satisfactory, although less tech
meal than some others. In large way
this volume must be said to be the most
entertaining of all, and the most valuable.
It describes the animals, reptiles, insects
and birds commonly met with in the coun-
try, and does it so delightfully."- that it
seems to fit the tastes of all ages and all
classes of readers. In fact, this book will
be found a guide to an acquaintance with
all common wild creatures. The volume
is profusely illustrated and is thoroughly
indexed.
THE MILLIONAIRES. By F. Frankfort
Moore. Price SO cents. D. Appleton
& Company.
=" This new paper volume is No. 244 of the
ever-famous "Town and Country Library"
series, and is an excellent story. AS has
been so often said. there is no other series
of novels before the public today in cheap
form that can be so safely relied upon to
contain no bad matter, while the great ma
jority Of the volumes are of very high char
acter.
COMPLETE PROSE WORKS OF WALT
WHITMAN. Small, Maynard & Com
pany, Boston.
The alternative title of this large and
handsome volume is Specimen Days and
Collect" November Boughs'' and "Good
Eye My Fancy"
At first 1t must be said that the volume is
made up in most excellent style, and has
a most satisfactory frontispiece portrait
Of the good, gray poet. 1t was undoubted-
ly Whitman's surprising individualsm,
that is, his simple human contact with
the world, that first compelled attention,
and next commanded interest and re-
spect. If it be true that the poet is a
singer with a master message to the world,
then Whitman was poet, though an err
ratio and unbridled one.
n, OF the poet he himself said:
"rhe known universe has one complete
lover and that is the greatest poet"
without effort and without exposing in
the least how it is done, the greatest poet
brings the spirit of any or all events and
passions and scenes and persons, some
more and some less, to bear on your indi-
vidual character as you hear or read"
i 1.-THE art Of art, the glory of expression
!, and the sunshine Of the light of letters IL
simplicity"
Yet, despite his simplicity, Whitman was
{ cunning maker of phrases, whether he
z realized that they were artificial or not
~ He said this of Tennyson:
y ITO me Tennyson shows more than any
a poet know (perhaps he has been warn
. ing to mel how much there is in finest yer
balism. There is such a latent charm II
{: mere words. cunning collocutions and in tn,
Z; voice singing them, which he has caugh
~ and brought out beyond all Others"