The Republican journal., 1899-07-13

udu llllS Is blit age ol SItdln
Boston TRANSCRIPT
1t is an axiom, we believe, that the
poet should be treated more in sorrow
than in anger. Being "born,' as the
saying goes, he can help it; hence he is
regarded as an element in some scheme of
retrbutive justice. Nevertheless, we
think that the poet responsible for the
foregoing ebullition is coming it rather
strong. Surely things are not so bad as
to justify the intlicton OF this modern
Tantalus on the seafarng race.
The idea of the "stately ship" ETC.,
having nothing to do but to Swing back
and forth" is very finely drawn and does
credit to the poets powers of imagination,
but it is delusion and snare calculated
to make a seaman give vent to some
numerous remarks of a sardonic charac-
ter. The pure prose of the matter is
that the ''stately ship, and the brig and
the bark, as well as the schooner and
the scow, so far as having nothing to do
but ''swing back and forth with the ebb
and the flood of the tide have to do a
good deal more bucking and beating than
they did before the Goddess of Prog
ress" drove them into the lumber and
coal trade on the coasts. Any remarks
uation may be set down as poet license
of the very highest order. AS an illus
tration of the subject, the foregoing is
right to the point:
The old whaling bark Northern Light is
going into commission again. She was built
i'll 1851, but is apparently as staunch to-day
as ever. For over forty years she made an
nual cruises to the Arctic in search of
whales, and when the business became du |
she was laid up in Oakland Creek. When
the rush to Kotzebue Sound was on she was
lifted out and carried over 100 passengers to
that region. On her return she was again
laid up, but now her Lighthouses are to be
taken off and she is going into the lumber
trade. Press Item.
This is not poetry, to be sure, but as the
man said when challenged to extemporize
couplet, cit is TRUTH The old Northern
Light, instead of swinging back and forth
in Oakland Creek, will do her swing to
Puget Sound and back with a load of lum-
Der. This is the ''newer and better
scheme that has been evolved for the
''stately ship that has been displaced (?)
(?) by the "age of steam.' The Northern
Light will probably continue to ''swing
back and FORTH on the Coast-until she
decides to swing to the bottom. The
schooner Edward Parkes, which went from
under the feet of the crew off San Fran
cisco the other day, is another example of
truth versus poetry. According to the
poetical view the Parkes should have been
cast aside, say in the bone yard, many
years ago. This should have happened
not only in accordance with the poetcal
requirements of the age of steam, but out
of respect to the age of the vessel herself,
had there been any consideration involved
other than that of running the old hooker
as long as she would float. The case of
these vessels is the case of all others.
There is no room for displaced (?) vessels
to lie at anchor, and besides it costs money
to lay them up or break them up. This
is where the poet is away off; he has
missed the tone touch of nature,' SO to
speak, that makes versifcation tolerable,
even when it is wide of the truth. If the
author of "The Passing of the Ships"
will take his old banks and briggs away off
shore and sink them we will excuse the
fact that he has been "born," although
we might be able to prove that that was
a great mistake on somebody's Part.
Anyway, we can't have lot of superannu-
ated windbags swinging back and forth in
the fairway. But few poets swinging,
now-however that's another, "a newer
and better scheme, 'as it were, that need
not be dwelt upon here. [Coast Seamans
Journal.