Omaha daily bee., 1898-08-31

of making things easy, smooth and simple.
Poetry, as vernacular, is in nothing an
improvement on prose, and unless 1t be the
special function of some special sense 1t
is certain to be pushed to the wall by the
fairer charms Of its younger sister-prose
THE great poet Of the past was regarded
as great oracle-one of the especially in
spired, but with our lierel mind Of today
we fail to see wherein the claim is to be
sustained. II II Is a story told by the poet
we find the story as told by the modern nov
elst far more interesting and dramatic.
If it Is an effort Of pure imagining the ideal
ist in prose is found to be more under
standable and believable There is for po-
etry swing and rhyme alone, and this is so
easily to be mistaken for the essence of the
poetic as to be its bane, and perhaps the
true reason for the present discredft into
which the whole art is fallen. AS for
rhyme, no phase of it can equal the possi-
blities of prose. But l am not here today
to condemn poetry any more than / am here
to confess to the decadence Of sentiment
| am not here TO shatter your idols and
leave you without the altars upon which
you were wont to lay the tender tribute
Of emotion / am not here as the icono-
clast, ambitious solely to reve in the pride
of his prowess, but as the builder, who
would but first make way for the more
desirable structure already designed, for
will show you before l am through that
there is to be a new poet and new poetry,
in fact a new poetic era, to which the scho-
rlastic mind Is instinctively turning, and of
which the present efforts to revitalize the
poetry Of the past Is the awakening mani
festations. 1t is not that sentiment is dead
or dying, but that 1t is alive, and very much
more alive than 1t has ever been before in
the realm of the worlds intellect. Think,
if you can, what food of uplifting and
ennoblng sentiment poured in upon the gen
eral mind from the stanZas of the poet who
wrote in oil lamps, In gas jets and In electric
.,,II, 1, 1,t,,1- rf tbn HNR ndn
have been sung in the steel plow and the
sewing machine. Think of the grand epics
that are found in the railroad engine and
the ocean steamer. Edison is dreamer of
the most exalting and exalted poetry. Morse
left behind him a deathless volume Of song
and Field translated it to the uttermost
parts of the world. So like is dreamer and
poet But in no one mode and to no one
living, but always for the one great pur-
pose, the God-intended and the still God
inspired-the refining and the splrltual1Zlng
of sentiency
"But of the poet of the past-and fear
me he is very much OF the past-let us look
in upon him, If you WILL and see II we
may what are the causes of his decline
That he has declined is a fact shown by
the records of the publishers For the last
ten years there have been no new editions
of the poets. There has, Of course, been
the stray volume Of the stray poet and
there has been the now and then volume
OF the present recognized genius Oi ulS CidSs
to whose living personality we come with
more or less the instructive tribute to abil-
ity, but of the dead poet there is but little
re- urning of the ashes.
II have here a volume of selected poems
supposed to include the more succinctly in
spired and the more distinctly BEST and
yet If this were to be regarded as the vol
ume of any one poet and we were to lay
down those ordinary rules Of guidance by
which we should expect to be governed in
dealing with the merits of any proposition
that was to appeal successfully to the COM
mon judgment, we should find ourselves Sc
lectng, again, but the one or two manifestly
the better, to be carried forward to some
still superior collection. Thus we perceive
that poetry OF the past has not made itself
concrete of sentiment as 1t has been re-
vealed in sculpture, painting, architecture,
in the printing press or in the loom"
The strength, plot and analysis of the
professors argument were carried forward
in the relation of an experience he had had
with noted journalist and critic on the
subject of poetry, in consequence OF which
test had been made of the different lead
ing English and American poets which vim
dicated the professors theory-the Justice OF
which was evidently concurred in by his
present audience. In the relation Of this
experience the professor outlined what
should be regarded as the true standard by
which poetic excellence should be meas
ured.
AS u Single Vi tuo Wohuoiiu
powers of analysis possessed by the pro-
fessor, we quote as follows:
80 much for the simple structure and
its requisite, but there is the standard OF
the higher intellect and Of yet the grander
aspiration; this standard demands the
sweeter scintillations Of truth, the more
picturesque metaphor, the simplicity Ct
prose the logically and symmetrically de-
fined continuity of thought, and this from
natural beginning to a definite ending
BY these lights let's us read one OF Long
fellows best poems l bring to this task a
spirit OF reverence, for Of all poets Long
fellow has been my favorite from a boy
Let us take one OF his most charming and
popular.
THE DAY is DONE.
"The day is done, and the darkness
Falls from the wings of night,
As a feather is waited downward !
From an eagle in his fight.
"I see the lights OF the village
Clean through the rain and the mist,
And a feeling OF sadness comes DER me,
That my soul cannot resist
"a feeling OF sadness and longing !sil
Is now II" session here. has ou