The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-11-09

first place among American poets is free
| ly accorded to Poe, it is maintained by
some that Longfellow is decidedly the
most popular in ENGLAND of all Ameri-
can poets, and is more read than is
Tennyson This does not express the
opinion as to supremacy of the latter,
who one of EnSland's greatest, sweet
est, most enjoyable poets. Mr.. w. l..
Alden, the literary correspondent at
London of the New York Saturday Re-
view, lately wrote:
Very possibly there are more readers
of Longfellow in England at the present
day than there are readers of Tennyson,
but that fact has nothing to do with the
respective merit of the two poets. There
was a time, not so very long ago, when
Upper had dozen readers in England
where Tennyson had one. That, however,
did not show that Topper was the great
er poet The popularity OF Longfellow
in England has always been rather a
puzzle to Americans. Granting all that
can be said iii praise of Longfellow's
gentle and pleasing muse, why should he
have been selected from all other Ameri-
can authors as the one whom the
British public delight to honor? That
certainly must be ranked among the list
of those things which no fellow can find
out. -
Edgar Allen Poe nearly sixty years
ago showed conclusively how Longfellow
plagiarized from Tennyson, Motherwell
and others. His criticism of the Massa-
chusetts poet is full of point and
pungency. Whatever he may be he is
not the chief poet in America" He is
probably the most popular poet as he
can be more easily understood and APP
preciated as consequence, by the
great mass of rhyme readers. Even so
far back as the forties in the last CEN
fury, the then prominent Scotch critic,
Rev. George Gillian, writing of the
American poet, said this in paper of
some twelve pages: ''Longfellow is
rather romantic and sentimental, than
a philosophical poet He throws in verse
the feelings, moods, and fancies of the
young or female mind of genius, not the
mature cogitations of profound phil
osophy His song is woven of moonlight,
not of strong summer sunshine.
He gathers roses and lilies. -. His
poetry is that of sentiment, rather than
of thought. His sphere is that
of sentiment, moralizing elegantly upon
many subjects" He had a refined, ele
giant mind, of genuine lyrical turn, and
he wrote of the common, everyday feel
ings and experiences of men and women.
He was loVable and courteous, full of
scnsibility and affection, true, scholar
ly, modest gentleman, replete with senti-
ment sometimes of sentimentality, and
with a sincere love of nature and of
legend Gilfillan said of him that he has
Intense humanity" He has genius,
genial manhood His genius lis essen
TALLY lyrical" He has not 1.-The severity
OF epic power nor the suDtilitys of Ira
matte genius" Gilfllan finds more
depth of power" in Emerson, another
poet of New England
So fine an English critic as Stopford A.
Brooke. in a recent critical study Of
Browning, uses verses" for stanzas.
Stornmouths excellent dictionary, a
product of Englands scholarship.~-say
verse" is from Latin versus-a line. it
gives Italian VerSo-'a line in poetry.
But adds that it is ''popularly four lines
or a stanza of a piece of poetry UsirS
it for stanza is simply an abuse. Wor-
cester's Dictionary defines Nerse-"a
measured line of poetry" It says to use
verso for stanza is common, but hardly
proper" 1t sometimes comes to Tass
that abuses in popular speech are intro
duced into dictionaries as proper, but
that is the sure way to corrupt and per
vert language Prof George Saintsbury,
an acute and learned critic OF England,
in his superior and valuable work on
1.-The Eliza bethan Literature writes
+.none have" What is "none?" 1t is mot
one" So it should he written none or
not ore is, and not mot one are Nine
public speakers out of ten use any
and every incorrectly. listen and you
will hear speakers constantly saying: If
there be any one in the house who desires
this or that then let them ito 50 and so.
Or YOU will hear every Used in this
wise; IF every one of you desires sal
walton, then let them all seek, etc.
The very gifted Scotch author, Robert
Louis Stevenson, who finished in his
prime few years ago, had poor
opinion of politics as pursued. He de-
scribed them (Mr. Gladstone said poll
tics are" and other eminent authorities
so wrote or spoke it, as 1.-The dirtiest,
the most foolish, and the most random
of human cmployments. But at another
time he wrote this: What else do we
care for, what else is any thing but sec
n6ary in that embroiled, COMPOUNDED
revelment OF politics, but to protect the
i old, and the weak, and the quiet, from
i the bloody, wild beast that slumbers IN
man." Then politics, after all, may have
noble mission in the world 1t is
/ good and noble work to strike for the
right, and the politicians of the higher
/ type perform grand service for liberty
and law, for the protection of the poor
and defenseless and oppressed. That
! gifted English man Of letters-essayist
and poet Austin Dobson-has written
this on Don Quixote, the immortal crea-
/ ton of Cervantes-
would today when courtesy grows
chill
And lifes fine Royalties are turned to jest,