The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-03-27

| ii is wholly unimportant to fill. In Realfs
! case it. is chiefly OF interest to examine the
| writings which, twenty-one years after his
death, it has been worth while to make
| into book.
These are entirely in verse. although Mr.
! Hinton declares that Realfs prose was often
| Of fine quality, and intimates that he pos
| SeSSeS enough of his letters to make another
| volume. Realfs poems are decidedly OF un-
equal merit, but at his best, and in the line
| of subjects that appealed most strongly to
his imagination he wrote with power and
| commanded style that give true distinc-
| ton to his work. Many poets Of much surer
| of which he was capable. The great mys-
| teries of life moved him profoundly and he
wonder' The GTst poem presented here is
called ''Symboiisms.' a series of sonnets.
| There are six of these poems. two of which
are here reproduced:
o Earth, thou hast not any wind that blows
| Which is not music every weed OF thine
And every humble hedgerow flower that grows.
And every little brown bird that doth sing,
Hath something greater than itself and bears
| a living Word every living thing,
Albeit it holds the message unawares.
All shapes and sounds have something which is
or them Spirit broods amid the grass:
Vague outlines OF the Everlasting Thought
| Lie in the melting shadows they pass;
The touch of Eternal Presence thrills
The fringes of the sunsets and the hills
Sometimes 1--WE know not how. nor why. nor
| The twitter of the SWALLOWS meath The caves
| The simmer OF the light among the leaves,
VIII strike up through the thick roofs of our
And show us things which seers and sages saw
In the gray earths green dawn; something doth
Like organ-hymns within us, and doth awe
| Our pulses into listening. and confer
Burdens of Being us; and ache
! With weights of Revelation, and our ears
Hear voices from the Infinite that take
Seem built pillared joys and overhead
Vast dove-like wings that arch the world are
| spread.
These lines have the haunting quality
| that is inseparable from good verse. the
workmanship is well nigh perfect and me
! The same mystical thought is otherwise eN-
pressed in poem called 'Indirection "A
| poem that Is constant traVeer through
| the newspaper press and treasure in many
| scrap-books. The closing stanZas follow
Great are the symbols of being. but that which is
| symboled is greater;
| ward creator
Back of the sound broods the silence; back of the
| Back of the hand that receives thrill the sensi-
| tives nerves Of receiving
| Space is as nothing TO spirit the deed is outdone
| 10y the doing;
The heart Of the woOer Is warm; but warmer the
| heart Of the wooing:
And up from the pits where those shbver. and up
from the heights where these stnne'
| Twin voices and shadows swim starward and the
| essence of life is divine.
With his unsteadiness of purpose and
| shifting ways it is surprising that Realf
should have had patience for the deep
soundings into the great verities that he
! made i'm his finer poems. The series of SON
nets which he made on the nign he died
| Chy his own hand. in California. in 1879
| shows the same technical skill observable
| in the pieces already cited. For instance,
For me this end has and 1 am deae.
And tho little vouble chattering davis of men
| Peck at me curiously-
| This is Shakspearean- The requiem moves
on with real majesty TO the end. The third
and concluding sonnet is subjoined;
so he died rich. And il his eyes were blurred
With big hlms-silencei lie is in his grave
| Greatly he suffered: greatly, too. he erred;
Yet broke his heart in trying to he brave
| Nor did he wait till Freedom mad become
The popular shibboleth of courtiers lips
He srnote for her when God himself seemed dumb
And all His arching skies were in eclipse
! He was a-weary but he fought his fight
And stood for simple manhood: and was ioyed
And earths heaving heavenward from the
void.
| He loved his fellows. and their love sweet
| Plant daisies at his head and at his feet.
With his military tastes and experiences
ii is surprising that Realf did not oftener
sound these same high notes in military
subjects but while he wrote a number of
battle pieces he rarely succeeded with them
in any great way. However, his Salvete
Mites is capital. and deserves 10 be better
known. Ii is as fine as DIR. I. w. Parson 5
"Dirge." and 1t is not unjust TO say that
Realf's poem is the more martial of the
two. These are the concluding stanZas:
Living or dead earth thrills with their luminous
| fervor of spirit:
| Living or dead, their blood hath entered INTO our
veins;
Their voice-the nebulous stars of the ,innacled
armament hear ii.
Their work in the nethermost pit its august in
huence reigns
For what are our times and spaces? Leonidas
| greeted Warren;
Under our scarlet fields great Marathon's secret
|
Nothing is past future, nothing is hidden or
| foreign a.,
The speech of Freedom is one, and one Is the
| soul of Man
"My Slain is another OF Realfs inner
| pieces, written in the sonnet form IN tnls
| poem he cruises again those coasts OF Hys-
| terry that ever tempted him In ms hshesl
| upon at least one couplet that SHOWS ms
| power to bring words into new ana striking
| relations.
| T who with whetted knives OF wordliness
| Did nut my own child-heartedness 10 death,
| are characteristic lines and mark a level
| TO which he was able to rise with remark
| able ease and frequency. An Ola Man 5
| Idyl" Is a sweet, melodlous song, touchihg
| with tenderness and pathos on one OF the
| commonest Of themes. This, with perhaps
. | half a dozen other pieces, deserves 10 De
, long remembered. They are the wrItngs OF
, | one who brought 10 the poets task a hlgh
: seriousness and combined with IL real felic-
: ity of expression. Many poems are included
i'm this volume that are merely common
. Mace showing little of the genius that
| shines in the poems referred to particularly
, | i'm these notes. But il has been said by
: another poet that time, who soonest drops
the heaviest things that weight his pack
will carry diamonds long, and the best
of Realfs poems viii continue To enjoy
much the same acceptance which Is granted
, i'm varying degrees TO the work OF Sill
I.aurier and Others OF the minor choir.