The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1899-06-25
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4 New Poet.

4 New Poet.
Here and there prophetic voices are hail.
ing Edwin Markham. author of The
Man with the Hoe" as the great American
poet There is no doubt whatever that he
has written one great poem, but whether
he is the poet for whom the young Republic
has been looking Is at present not quite
certain. He has undoubtedly the qualities
Of the typical American singer in larger
measure than anyone who has yet ap-
peared. He is the herald Of the democratic
ideal Swallowed forth by Whitman, but he
speaks with none of Wh.tman's bizarre
crudity. His work is full of the audacity
of true courage and the happy phrasing
which comes only from poetic instinct. He
voices ideas which are struggling toward
expression through all the best of our lit
erature. These things, at least, one may
say without contradiction.
The Man With the Hoe" has been quot
ed more widely than any other recent po-
EN- except The White Mans Burden.
which came at the nick of time, and
achieved much of its popularity in that
way. Mr.. Markham's poem, on the con-
trary, might have been written at any time
in the last hundred or perhaps in the next
hundred years, and it would still have wo1
recognition. There are magnificent lines
in it here and there, and the poem as a
whole appeals to the deeper nature of the
reader-not merely TO his sense of the art
istic. That is what makes it great.
The small volume of lyrics, blank verse
and quatrains which is now published by
Mr.. Markham contains one or two other
81 l. l. ~ L,
as his more famous work One of these is
a fragmentary creation called
THE MAN UNDER THE STONE.
When j 4 workingrnan with mouths to feed
Up. day after day, in the dark, before the dawn
And coming home, night after night, through tbs
dusk,
Swinging forward like some fierce, silent animal
] see man doomed to roll huge. stone up al
endless steep.
He strains it onward inch by stubborn inch,
Crouched always in the shadow Of thu
See where he crouehes twisted, eramped. mis-
shapen!
He lifts for their life;
The veins knot and darker >
Blood surges into his face.
Now be loses-now he wins
Now he loses-loses-(God OF my soulD
He digs his feet into the earth
There's a moment OF terrified effort
Will the huge stone break his hold,
And crush him as it plunges TO the gulf?
The silent struggle goes on and on,
Like two contending in dream.
Again the pure democratic spirit speaks
IN The Desire of Nations with its up
lifted vision of the new Messiah:
Nor viii he come like carnal kings Of old,
With pomp of pilfered gold;
Nor like the PhsTisees, with pride Of prayer;
Nor the stumbling. foolish stewards dream,
In tedious argument and fruitless creed,
But in the passion of the heart-warm deed
VIII come the Man Supreme.
Yea, for he comes TO lift the Public Care,
To build Earth the Vision hung in air.
This is the fulhllment OF his Law
The one Fact in the moekeries that seem.
This is the Vision that the prophets saw
The Comrade Kingdom builded in their dream.
No voice has before so fearlessly spoken
of the hero. born to lift a nation to 4
purer and higher life. Whether this hero
is TO be some one man, working through
the power of a grand personality, or a ra-
cial type. shaped by some magnificent i'm
pulse sweeping through the whole people,
cannot as yet be known. Here again is
the same thought:
The crest and GROWING Of all good,
Life final star. is Brotherhood;
For it viii bring again TO Earth
Her long-lost Poesy and MiTth;
Will send new light on every face,
kingly power upon the race,
And till il come. we men are slaves,
And travel downward 10 the dust OF graves.
Come, clear the way then, clear the wayi
Blind orceds and kings have had their day.
Break the dead branches from the path;
Our hope is IN the aftermath
Our hope is in heroic men,
Startled, 20 build the world again.
To this event the ages ran;
Make WAY for Observation-Disclosures way for Man.
This is the voice of the West; free, vi
rifle, little crude. royalty hopeful. 1t al
most seems as if the men who first mount
ed and crossed the Rocky Mountains and
looked upon the Pacific with eyes full of
the triumph of successful fortune seeking
had beQueathed to their descendants and
followers a legacy Of joyous confidence and
feariessness. They were the large emboii-
ments of the spirit which has made this
country what il is. And 1t is. therefore,
fitting that the man who speaks for the
America Of the future should be a Califor-
nian. as Edwin Markham is. 1t speaks
well fer him, also, that although he is past
middle life, his first volume of poems is
slender almost TO meagreness. II proves
that he has been a man of thought and of
action, concentrating his ideas into words.
writing only when he has something 10
say.
Some of his lyrics are almost trivial in
subject, dealing with ants. and poppy
hosts" and small winged beings; but
the large nature is always tender of little
creatures; and this is no bad sign. In
some of the lyrics appears a daintiness OF
finish which is nothing less than exquisite,
while in some the simplicity of feeling is
almost bourgeois and trite-but never quite
that Here is a fragment of nature study:
Just then the branches lightly stirred.
See, out o the apple boughs a bird
Bursts nilsie-mad into the blue abyss;
Rotlschild would give his gold for this
The wealth Of nations, If he knew;
tAnd find 4 profit in the business, ioo).
And here is an eldritch bit of fairy lore:
One secret night stood where ocean pours
Eternal waters on the yellow Shores
And saw the Diff; Of fays that Prosper saw;
CHER feet had no more sound than BLOWN,
straw
And little hands held tight in little hands
They chased hecting billow down the sands.
But turned in the nick o time, and mad viii
giee.
Raced back again before the swelling sea.
These quotations are taken at random
There are others to be found on eyery
page, for each poem has its own individual
quality. Altogether this little book should
be owned by everyone who cares for rea
poetry OF fresh and original sort (NeW
York: Doubleday & Mcclure Company
sl.0o.)
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