The daily silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1903-1907, 1904-06-16

it would be difficult to find in all our
lite ature a more beautiful expression
of TIE lesson Of confidence in divine
goodness than this little poem. In
it's chaste sim olic'tv, it is as perfect a
piece of art as the cutting upon an
ancient gem.
Nothing more exquisite can be con-
ceived," sa.-s Or. Roy Palmer, than
the picture it represents to the metnal
eye of the imaginative" The melody
Of the verse Is as sweet. as it is SIM
pie. The choice of language is per-
rect.
There Is q power whose care
Teaches thy way along hat painless
coast
The desert and illimitable air.
Lone. wandering but not lost,
All thy WINS have famed
At that far he ght, the cold. thin
atmosphere
Yet stoco not, weary, to the well
come land.
Though the dark ni@ht is near"
Bryant's poetry has never been pop
ular because he was TOO meditative and
too distant from human sympathies to
give general pleasure. Nearly all poets
whose poetry was and is now to q
certain extent unpopular, Decause or
Their distance from human s%yInpath-
les, a e the classic poets. Bryant, the
American Wordsworth, loved nature
better than humanit. ard in nature ne
sought the solemn n sublime. His
reflections were sc. ious and sad. The
burden of h,s song is the transformers
Of life. The simplicity of his poetry
will always command admiration. All
unpoetic phrase or an unrhythm'c line
can harry be found. We have quoted
B yant rs the American Wordsworth.
But we have no Milton or Shakespeare
70 stand with him. He alone holds the
anks for high seriousness among
American poets.
The second requisite. scope. is the
ability to write on all subjects in sew
eral perfect styles. All American poets
have a style peculiarly their own, Pc
vuliarly Anne lean. All subjects are
rea,ed in a like strain. Whittier. like
Eans. deals almost entirely with rus
ic life. HIS "~Snowbound" is avowed
ov critics to &c the most faithful pie
lure e tie northern winter that has
yet leon rat INTO !rstr and that this
poem gives an ideal reproduction OF
IN old-fashioned Anne lean rustic
lome: not a peasant home-sar above
hat III refner ent and probabilities
nj =cuai'y s..nrlc. frugal and devout:
/, hDfrc q VI irh no other land has
'utnish"d the 4 ncte type. AL
hough "Snowbound" is such a beau-
-iful picture of American home-life
there is no diversion to Whittier's
work. His poetry is a natural out-pour-
lts % His Lea. / a.pd as he lived such a
.9ClIdri ~ Il j. o ~ natural that
his WgIt.hGs slcdfd ie narrow. We
ilouli u tfiti"iar tbs in Whittier
because al of his life he was an i'm
al d. Whittier was the poet Of the
working people; his sympathy went
put into every sort OF !.cnest n ".
10 matter how humble. And with his
sympathy, of course, went also the
wamth ami color Of bis poetic imagi-
tat.on and fancy. Herein Lag one of
he secrets of his popularity. There
$ nothing in American lite atu e. uu-
less il he the anti-slavery papers of
Tho ean. which equals the seven fold
heated moral indignation of Writers
works or slavery. There can he no
loubt thar Whittier's poems did as
nuah Us Garrison's editorials to key
n the minds of the people to the point
eqrireI ~ act'on aga nst slavevy.
Of GIl the Anne lean poets. Holmes
probably excells in scope. Holmes
-upremest title to enduring fame. how
ever. lies in his wit and humor. These
trivade all his work and give it that
one and flavor thai the world ack-
lowledges t. be d stinctively his. His
vit was of that rare kind which excites
he fancy and the mag native rathe'
han orovokes to mirth. His humo
vas % a rare SO. I also-cualnt, subtle
md often so allied to pathos. that 4
causes our smiles to shine through
ears. But humor and wit alike were
lSed A. subordinate to some h'gh pur-
lose. Ills serious poetry scarcely has
been the serious work of his ife: but in
us speciality, verse suited to the .ol c
or pathos of occs sions. he had given
Us much of the best delivered in h8a
own time and has excelled all othe &
in delive y. But what he most ex-
eelled in was Uric verse. lie ranks
almost with Shelley in lyric poetry, but
he lacked the high seriousness TO make
hIm 9 great poet. F"w authors or
Holmes depth have cCyered so wide
4 field and one TIER work so we'll
lie was not a great thinker: he
b ought no burning message; he sell
dom struck the deeo STRATA OF lie. but