The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-03-01
THE DEADLY ALEXANDRINES
WRECKED A NOBLE POET
By Hubert M. Skinner.

Alexandrines are harmless looking
! things. They are simply lines or
| verses Of twelve syllables EACH form
ing six poetic feet, the accent falling
on the last syllable of each foot. They
don't look or sound at all dangerous.
But one of the brigh lights of the days
Of Queen Elizabeth was completely
done up" by them. ea.-
IL anybody questions the high poet
ical talent of Michael Drayton, let him
read what the critics have said of the
| luckless poet in every succeeding age.
All are agreed as to the high quality
of his style, the. genuineness of his
inspiration, the strength and dignity
of his compositions. ''
AS for a subject, Drayton hit upon
most engaging one, which Longfel-
low developed three centuries later, IN
his collection of Poems of Place"
Perhaps there is now no more charm
ing collection OF poems than this. In
several volumes are gathered the de-
SCriptiVe, historical and legendary Tyr
les Of American scenery and life these
being arranged in groups according to
sections, beginning with New England.
where every town seems rich in men,
cries of the past.
Drayton, I say, anticipated Long
fellow. Away back in the days of Eliz-
abeth he planned a series of volumes
of poems, or songs" as he called them,
of place. Having succeeded with his
shorter and fugitive poems, having
charmed the court and made his mark
among his contemporaries. he set
about the realization of a plan SO am
bilious that 1t has been called STU
pendous" He would write the whole
series of poems. traversing England
and Wales. and then perhaps Scot
land. emitting no locality, large or
small, that presented anything of beau
ty or of historical association. He
would describe the place he would tell
Its story in song. Mountain and moor.
river and lake, broolSlet, bridge and
ferry forest and cliff and bay-all
were waiting for him. History and
legend, ancient song, nursery rhyme.
proverb and witticism, all alike were
waiting. But to gather together the
materials for such a work might have
been labor for a host of workers; and
to express in enduring poetry the pic
ture and the lore and the sentiment Of
each spot might have engaged an army
of bards.
To this stupendous work did Michael
Drayton devote himself, with the en-
ergy of master soul. The years
passed on, and found him still at his
work. The first volume was hardly
completed when he was at work upon
the second. He never stopped to
question If his work would be a per-
manent success. ut must be-" he said,
as he toiled on. He knew that his
theme was popular, that 1t appealed
to the people Of the entire kingdom.
He knew, or thought he knew, that
he was competent to perform II, If
only he would live to the end. And in
that work was to be his enduring mon
ument. Ages might come and go, but
the works OF Drayton would remain
In the libraries Of the world! And so
they do. But who reads them? No
body. Histories of literature tell Of
Drayton and his admirably planned
work. the grandest poetical gazetteer
that had ever been conceived. They
tell of his high abilities. And there
they leave him. Scholars do consult
the great poem, and often find delight
in it. But to the mass Of the people
it is a sealed volume.
The cause is easily found; but this
only opens up a new matter for as
constituent. In the first place, its name
would now be called "a fright" This
great poem was called the ''PolyolbiOn."
Some chump editors have assumed
that the last part of the word was in
tended to mean "Albion"-the ancient
name for Britain-and that the title
signified many Britain" AS a mat
ter of fact, 1t is a Greek word. mean
ing much wealth" But what really
killed the poem was it's meter. 1t was
written in Alexandrines, rhymed in
couplets. One can read ten or twenty
lines of 1T perhaps, but then he be-
comes weary Of the monotony. Thirty
lines are too much; more than that
number is utterly deadly to poem. The
dreary refrain runs on page by page,
for hundreds, thousands, thousands
upon thousands of lines. No reader
of Anglo Saxon blood can follow 1t. In
fact. the poem has done service as
warning, for 1T demonstrated early