The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1902-01-14

ter, Surer appreciation. OF the great
masters In verse. Fifty year g and
after there was no really satisfactory
work on English Literature, setting
forth the difficulties and p~erplexities OF
English verse. so far as we know.
Professor Shaw had written the best.
but he avoided the chief difficulties. The
best authors accessible were utterly de-
fcien. in discussing the true art OF
verse writing. Principles were lacking
and classification was impossible. You
were left to grope in darkness and what
was most important was left unex-
planned and untaught- II bad now. or
twenty years g it was far worse In
the forties and fifties. A thoughtful
sou hcrn critical writer, who is very
scholarly. wrote some years ago of the
defciencies-"the half knowledge and
downright ignorance" He said OF the
very insufficient and defective works of
perhaps less than twenty years ago.
that the student will find in them no
clew to the intricacies of English verse
in its technique. and 10 its multitudin-
u harmonies-no principles that will
guide him safely in studying the works
of Anselm, Caedmon. Ormin. Chaucer,
Shakespeare, Milton. Tennyson, Poe
and others" This is only too true. Go
back forty years. or even fer twenty
five years, and search the best books to
be found bearing 81 old English or
Anglo-Saxon poetry, (they are not ne
cessarily the same. but generally so
used.) and he will see now faulty, how
insufficient, how scant they are to
meet the wants, to answer the inquiries
of the student. Taine's mastery work
on English L~iterature-a work of
genius. Of marvellous penetration, of
fine eloquence n weighty with
thought-will not meet your demands
in the particular suggested.
We have never awaited ourselves of a
southern work Of genuine merit thai
would have given is no doubt the light,
the information we needed. but like the
bicycle in physical culture, the admir-
able work came too late for our time
and opportunities and even desire for
technical study. We refer. we can only
refer, to but one book-"The Science of
English Verse" by Sidney Lanier, the
most gifted son of Georgia (and prob
ably of North Carolina stock, like Hen
ry Grady was.) it's best poet and purest
genius. In 1889, it was published by the
S~cribners, n met with much cordiality
of reception from capable critics in
Europe and America. We really know
nothing beyond what these critics said
of 1t. Few men ever lived who were as
we'll qualified for the delicate. acute,
important and yet intricate work in
hand He was a poet born and a musi-
clan of most uncommon endowment, of
exquisite ear and unique skill. In adj
clifton. he was scholarly 1--WE have read
much by him of other kinds of prOduc-
tion) refined in taste. understood
thoroughly the rich, full ~harnSonies of
language, and was master of the
minutiae and technique of verse in it's
manifold forms. We wish we knew his
book SO we could write i~ntelligently and
appreciatively of the high merits to give
t a wider popularity and make it a more
constant handbook OF the student in
the higher class. But Is it possible that I
a work of such minuteness and artis-
tic design shall ever become popular
that is widely used. !
The southern writer aforesaid, from
whom we quoted at the beginning,
whose name we do not know, but whose
initials were A. B. S., wrote OF Lanier,
his hnOE Includes in h:-h nraico. .
His special knowledge of this sub !
ject' (verse writing) is so full and so
comprehensive that there is not, per-
haps. a man in England or America
able to criticise his work from the view
point of superior knowledge Thas is
probably correct. Even Tennyson. a
marvellous builder of the finest and
most harmonious English verse, and
perfect master of all technicalities and
all melodies of which versification is
capable. was not such d thorough mas
ter perhaps of the wide and special
knowledge that Lanier possessed for
the peculiar and difficult and very
have been able to wisely, justly, saga
ciously discuss the rather unique
workmanship and the principles and
theories expanded. If Tennyson possibly
could not have lone SO. there was
no other man who could. He was not
only the greatest poet of the Victorian
Reign, and the supremest master Of
noble and splendid verse. but the most
learned poet inc Milton.
We mentioned that Lanier was OF
North Carolina stock We read several
years ago a satisfying article on him
in the Greensboro Workman Of that
day. 1t was by al esteemed friend. the
late Rev. J. L. Michaux. He wrote Of
the family whence the gifted Georgian
poet sprang. The great-grandfather Of
the poet came from England. a good
country from which the ancestor Of a
true poet might come. His name was
James Lanier. At the time we saw our