New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1899-08-13

a
! stc ideal. His leading motive is best expressed
| in the poem entitled THE Desire of Nations"
the first dozen lines Of which follows:
Earth will go back to her lost youth
1 And life grow deep and wonderful as truth.
when the wise King out of the nearing Heaven
comes
| TO break the spell of long millcnniums-
To build with song again
The broken hope Of men
i To hush and heroize the world.
i Beneath the flag Of Brotherhood unfurled.
4 And He will come some day:
Il Already is His star upon the way,
He comes. O world, He cOmes
But not with buSle cry
1 Nor roll Of doubling drums.
1 With the aspiration of these lines there can
BE no quarrel They echo the estmabe sent
nent chanted by Whitman and Morris and
\ other lyric commentators on modern society
y4he exaggeraton inevitable in all such writing
is only excused when accompanied by high
.,oetjcal qualities These Mr.. Markham lacks.
and his Intellectual lines the more disap-
pointing inasmuch the errors Of all soclalistic
| poets are extreme in him. THE Man with the
| Doe" poem Of which the present excessive
popularity is puzzling, to say the least, is nota
bic for its forcing of the note. InterrogatnG the
! peasant of Mnlet's famous picture, Mr.. Mark
/ ham assumes that that bowed figure epitomizes
| the despair Of the workers of the world This
/ assumption is not justified by the condition of
| the class from which the French artist drew his
| model That Millet himself knew this the poet
] might have discovered by traversing the long
\ rt Of pictures in which the painter of THE
Man with the Hoe" celebrated the sweetness,
the sunshine, the domestic happiness and com
4 fort to be found in the rustic life Of France.
KDlets peasant, representative OF toll that is
lbnstantly bearing lighter on the shoulders of
NJ hon init
bogie profoundly symbolical. 1t Is admirable
! 10 hope as this writer hopes, for the brother
hood of man, "1ife's final star" but. making all
! due allowance for the sufferings OF the race to-
day, 1t is idle to paint the existing situation in
1 eo,ors 40 lurd as those to which this poet is
/ addicted THE Man with the Hoe" falls in line
I With much of the unreasoning discomfort and
4 agitation Of the day which may account for its
] vogue though II does not awaken confidence In
! the inspiration of the poet In fact, we ind MI
! Markham on the whole, very doubtful genus
1 One merit he has which we are glad to recognize
: "a certain verbal suavity which causes MS
rhymes to move easily and now and then melIlf-
,lcusly. Witness from the Wall OF the Wan
aring Dead" this stanza
A We wander wander and the nights come down
WITH starless darkness and the rush of rains;
We drift as phantoms by the sOngless town.
ave drift as litter on the windy lanes
u This. however, is higher than the average or
thss volume which shows, in short, from cover
to cover, facility waiting on Ideas hohesuy
dedicated to the good of man, but shalo" anu
aevo,d of originality. We deplore the absence
? o. imaginative power and fresh music rum
tscse napes. and regret the unthinking applause
Of the multitude, which may possibly cohhrm
de- author ia his fondness for inflated argument
ana specious rhetoric
Mr. Madison Cawen continues TO write WIN
surprising copiousness and enthusiasm Inc TO-
mantle feeling which has been developing stead
ny In him is row in as full possession as IL
opmpatible with his love for the sheer sweet
= Iasss and beauty Of natural Things ne can
Kr,ifv a legend with spirit and point though
be stu fails to persuade US that the sihsihs VI
nmartic themes is exactly what his gifts are
calculated for. What we want In "a fantasticai
poem Ike his "Romaunt of the oak is the
toucb of magic borrowed not only from the
motive hut from the temperament OF the poet
ard Br Csgein always gives US an uneasy FEEL
pg that his telling OF stories in verse is purely
the experimental exercise Of fond amateur
Glamour il essential Glamour comes ny III
siDc. not By rhetoric, and he has IL not ret
ut us adni, tbf; he writes with hahd not
u adapted to lie turning OF superhciaHy at
sE estive rhymes and when we pass from his
narrative UoeIns TO his pictures OF stream ana
Tree and flower can feel a certain pleasure IN
h. harvest Of his afcctionate observations.
70 her Is no theme that is half 50 sweet
Ihe song OF the wind in the ripping wheat
,,fkere ia no metre that's half so fine
. As the lit Of the brook under rock and vine;
. And the loveliest lyric ever heard
a Was the wildwood strain of forest bird.
: The reader might ask Mr.. Cawein rather quiz