The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-03-07
THE EOuSIER POET.
Points About Riley's Employment
of Dialect IN Verse.

In an article on the poetry Of James
Whitcomb Riley, published N the Crit
ic, Maurice Thompson speaks Of the
poets use of dialect. He compares the
Indiana singer and Lowell of New Eng
land. He says:
Lowell had the artists feeling and
the poets sense Of The true limitations
Of rustic jargon as material for poetry.
Riley has the same, 10 the length OF
knowing how To use ii with even great
er ease than Lowell; but Riley has evil
IDENTIFY aimed to force the limitations
of illiteracy upon poetry for the sake
OF illiteracy, while Lowells aim was
in the main didactic, his dialect being
a mere mask of crudity for political ef-
feet.
What has been the outcome? We
have before us a body of verse unique
in flavor, and certainly charged with
the force of sweet and tender genius
In many of the poems the dialect is
hindrance, a coat that does not fit
but in most of them it is the dialect
that counts. Mr.. Riley is unquestion-
ably sincere in believing that he gets
nearer to the people" with the rustic
jargon than would be possible with re-
fined literary expressions; and to a.
certain degree he is right But it is
not everything that pleases the herd
not everything popularity amusing or
Catching-that is permanently Halu-
able, even to kinds and their success
ors. Mr.. Riley's poetry gets close to
human nature not because il is droll
literature. but because there are direct
strokes of simple, universal human aD-
peal in it. These strokes might not be
more Immediately telling were they
made within the magic circle of liter
airy tradition; but it seems certain that
their effects would be far more last
ing.
Mr. Riley has been prolific author
nor has he entirely escaped the mishaps
that come to the over-fecund magma
ton. Such long pieces as mis- Flying
Island of the Night and "Armazindy,''
not to count the "Rubaiyat of Doc Sif-
ers," swell the amount of his output,
to use a term of trade, but they really
add nothing to his standing as a poet.
His claim to genuine distinction must
rest upon his short snatches of homely
song, and most of all upon idylls pure
and simple. wherein the lad and the
lass, the rustic and his family, the little
children and the ogling louts of our
rural dark corners, tell their eXper-
fences and aspirations in language not
admirable, but excruciatingly droll and
amusing.
To account fully for Riley we must
ment that he began in American litera-
ture. Harte opened the door to a very
fascinating region. His discovery Of |
picturesque California suggested other
regions that might be fairly workable.
Since then Gable has opened up Louis |
lana. Harris and Johnston have work |
ed middle Georgia, Craddock east Ten |
nessee, and Riley Hoosierland. Harte |
originated what may be called post |
Lowellian dialect in poetry, but he soon |
found prose more profitable. Riley |
made himself master of the field, and |
the secret of his success is in a certain |
slender but pure vein of dramatic |
power. Wherever he is most lyrical, |
the touch of absolute dramatic persona
ton also shows distinctly In this he |
recalls Theocritus, whose vision was SO
direct and sure that Arcadia lay under |
it as real as ones doorYard.
Riley'S Hoosierland is, in fact, as |
much an abstraction as Faerieland, or
Avalon. or Hesperides: Indianians can
not be certainly distinguished from
Ohioans, Illinoians, Iowans and the
rest. The educational standing of In
diana is by no means low: its people |
critic has his innings here, which he
must improve by remarking that the
dialect tradition is more frazzled, fray
ed and outworn today than the literary
tradition pure and simple. 1t is dis
tinctly comforting. however, to admit
that Mr.. Riley and his rustic art are
not dependent upon any critical theory;
they are with US in delightful self-sut-
Made out o truck ats jes' a goln' to
waste
Cause smart folks thinks it's altogether
too
common.
Another distinguishing quality of Mr..
Riiey's genius is safe seif-measurement.
In choosing to express itself in the jar
gon of belated civilization and arrest
ed literary development, it behaved
wisely. Mere caricature does not fill
4 large space in RiIey's poems; pure