The Savannah morning news., 1902-02-09
SOUTHERN POETRY.

1t comes somewhat in the nature of
a pleasurable surprise to find an en-
thusiastic appreciation of Southern
poetry by a New York critic in
Vermont magazine; yet that is what
the International Monthly, published
at Burlington, presents to its readers
in its February issue. Heretofore the
literati and the magazine publishers
north and east of the Potomac have
been so engrossed in the study of their
own poets-the depth and breadth
of their Emerson, the scholarly finish
of their Lowell. the enigmatic gyra-
tions of their Whitman, and so on
that they have failed to lend more
than casual ear to the singing voices
that have been raised in the South. To
this general observation, however, there
Is one eXception-Poe. But, while he
was Southerner. he lived much in
the North. and was identified in con-
siderable measure with Northern lit
erature. Moreover. his wierd, atten-
tion-compelling work was done in a
more favorable atmosphere than
geniuses whose songs We're for the time
lost amid the gathering storm that
broke in armed conflict and later
smothered by political janglings. Poe's
place in American literature is safe.
The places of other Southern poets
will be similarly assured when, in the
calmer period which we have now en-
tered, their works shall be read with
out prejudice and judged upon their
merits.
The International Monthly's article
to which we have referred is from the
pen of Hamilton Wright Mabie, one
of the editors of the Outlook and an
author of distinction. He was born,
reared and educated, and has labored,
In New York. A man of letters, he
has known and reverenced the North
ern poets: but loving nature and mel
ody, he has heard with appreciation
the songs of the South. In the lyric
attitude towards nature and life, says
Mr.. Mabie, the Southern poets are at
one, from the time of Poe to that of
Lanier. The product of the Southern
poets is not great in mass, but so far
as 1t goes it is pure poetry; it is
poetry for the love of beauty rather
than for the sake of ideas" In which
characteristic it differs from much of
the ''intellectual' poetry of New Eng.
land. Says Mr.. Mabie, continuing:
1T (the poetry of the South is trans
parently sincere; its spontaniety gives
1t fidelity to experience and emotion;
1t is the poetry of feeling rather than
intellect. 1t instinctively passes out
of the realm of thought into the realm
of feeling"
Mr.. Mabie singles out for especial
and appreciative comment the works
Of Henry Timrod, Paul Hamilton
Hayne, William Gilmore Simms, and
Sidney Lanier. To Timrod and Lanier
he devotes the major portion of his at
tention, apparently regarding them as
the more gifted of their brilliant COM
pany. Timrod sounded a new note of
purity and sweetness and passion;
Haynes genius was less vigorous but
more flexible and free: Lanier had
depth and breadth of imagination equal
to the fusinS of great ideas. THE
richness of his temperament predicted
a great poet if life had given him ade-
ouate room. His work is full of in
tellect, but 1t is not primarily intel
lectual: no poetry of the first rank is
primarily intellectual. A poetry wholly
OF ideas is passionless, undramatfc.
colorless: it interests but it does not
move the breath of life has not passed
into it. Lanier had great ideas, and
he had Imagination of the vftaIizing,
constructive kind" His was the large
unfolding, irradiating Imagination. 1t
is pleasant to have our poets under
stood. Mr.. Mabie understands them.
1t is sincerely to be hoped that his
article will have the effect of inducing
a larger reading of their poetry. All
they need is the audience; they will
compel its admiration.