The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-02-04
AMERICAN NOVEL A JOKE
1T is SO ANALYZED BY REV. WILL
LIAM A. QUAYLE IN HIS LECTURE.
He Talked Entertainingly Yesterday
Of Poetry and Poets and Lit
erature Generally.

Yesterday afternoon Rev. William A
Quayle gave delightful lecture on 1.-The
Rise of American Poetry" This was the
first of three lectures In this series, the
others being one on american Poetry"
and one on American Poets" The next
lecture will be given on March 8. Mr.
Quayle's lecture was a sort of history of
American poetry.
He began his talk with brief Introductory
discussion on the American novel, which he
analysed as huge joke. He said the no.
ton of an American novel is a bad notion
and not at all desirable. He asked the
question. what constitutes an American
novel?" and went on to say that, pre-
sumably, 1t ought to contain American
character, which the so-called American
novel always lacks. Continuing he said:
There is no such a thing provincial
literature; because "A Gentleman from In
diana was written by an Indiana man, or
because 'Ben-Hur' was written by an In
diana man. does not necessarily mean that
the book is an Indiana book, nor the char
acters Hoosiers. Faust, Dante and Homer,
although they all have their individual
nationality, their poetry is international
poetry Les Miserables' is called French
novel because Frenchman wrote it and
because the scene is laid in French town;
Dickens is called an English author be-
cause his scenes are mostly in London, but
these works are not necessarily provincial
Any attempt to divide literature by geog-
raphy is a mistake. 1t would be impossi-
BILE to tell that Sponsors Fairy Queen
was produced by an Englishman, unless
you knew ali about it-you could not tell by
merely reading 1t and, therefore, the
American system of poetry is not essen
TALLY different from other poetry. Ameri-
can poetry has not been produced long
1t was impossible to get at it early. there
were so many hindrances; First, we were
occupied with discovery and our environ
ments were against us. We had great
new world which had to be discovered;
then there was the barbarism to fight,
and then our liberty to gain. In those days
people were poetry and when a nations
might is used in fighting it is not day
when poetry should come to the lips of
men. In those days We were living poetry
making poetry.
Another hindrance was that we had no
antiquity, which is a great theme for
poetry; another hindrance we had no leg
ends or mythology. However, now We
realm of beauty. People think they must go
to Europe to see bewildering beauty in
nature, but if we seek beauty we have it
at home as the American poets tell us in
their verse;" Mr.. Quayle paid a high
tribute TO American poets when he said
they were, with but one exception, men of
faith and their poetry was absolutely clean.
Their poetry Is mostly lyric poetry, and
their love lyrics were in almost every case
written to women after they were the
wives of the poets He spoke in glowing
terms of Longfellow, Bryant, Edgar Allen
Poe. Whittier, James Russell Lowell and
others, and he said after reading their
poetry ones better instincts have been
strengthened.