The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-01-29
THE POET IN POLITICS.

Poetry and politics make an ALTERATION,
but there is no affinity between them.
They are indeed, almost the antipodes
of each other, and that IS why poet-poli-
ticians and politcian-poets are about as
scarce as hens teeth and dodo eggs. Take
a typical successful poitcian-Mr Crok-
er or Senator Quay, or Thomas c. Plat
and assert that such a person had writ
ten a sonnet, and the country would i'm
mediately break into loud guffaw, real
izing the impossibility of any such thing
being a fact. And then assert that James
Whitcomb Riley, or Edmund c. Stedman
or Frank Stanton had gone into practical
politics with the assurance that he could
carry his ward. or be elected chief con-
stable Of his town; and the popular each
innations would be quite as boisterous as
in the first instance. Politics and poetry
just won't combine in the same person.
Bob" Taylor of Tennessee tried to
make them combine. He succeeded In
getting what he considers an unsatisfac-
tory sort of a mixture, but no combina-
ton. Mr.. Taylor is a poet. He thinks in
rhyme. and converses in cadences. He
never goes to bed and to sleep, but re-
tires to a couch where fairy whispers lull
him4nto slumber and his dreams are peo-
pied with visions of loneliness and color
and harmony. He does not get up of a
morning and jump into his pants" but
energies from sweet dreamland into the
real world that is made glad with glo-s
rious sunlight gllnting and shimmering on
green leaves and waving grasses, if the
day be fair, or into a world where nature
is weeping for the weakness of mankind,
if it chances to be raining. Other men
hustle into their buds and scurry to bust
ness, but not so the poet; there is the
rythm of poetic motion even as he crawls
through from the bottom end of his shirt
to the top. Manifestly politics is not the
sphere for such temperament. The soul
that delights to revel in bowers of flow
ers while vt sings of beauty and peace
and love, cannot get down to and enjoy
beer garden and precinct meetings and
mean cigars. To the poet there is no
music in the crackle of a crisp new two
dollar bill, while to the ward politician
Beethoven never wrote anything nearly
so enhancing.
Nevertheless, on two separate occasions
Mr.. Taylor has tried to blend poetry and
politics, in the Office of Governor of his
state. From the average practical poll
ticians point of view, he made a success
of his politics; he got there" But from
the poets point of view, Mr.. Taylor's own
the experience was not at all satisfactory
He told about It in his farewell to office
and to politics. In Nashville the other day
A political career Is all a vanity, he said,
and he had determined to live hereafter
in a sphere from which he could add to
the worlds mirth and music and happi-
ness. While l believe" said he, that
the good in politics outweighs the bad. yet
how thorny is the path and how unhappy
the pilgrimage to him who dares TO do his
duty! There are no flowers except a few
bouquets snatched from the graves of fall
en- foes; there is no happiness except the
transient thrill of cruel triumph, Which
passes like a shadow across the heart"
1t must have been raining on the morn
ing of the day that Gov. Taylor retired
from office. and the sombre skies must
have depressed the poets spirits. His
state, and the public, will give him credit
for having made a faithful, conscientious,
painstaking executive. The convicdon9of
duty well performed should prove to him
a recompense for the discords which have
Jared upon him Meantime. it is not out
of place TO say that politics offers no ca
reer for true poet.