The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-01-10

HC QucSliOu UIlcu dShtuy W HiCu iH the best American short poem?'' has been raised again by the Philadelphia Press, D which has been printing the series of Poems Worth Printing, selected by Mrs. Ella W. Peattie, for syndicate of daily papers.
 It is pleasing to see people taking an in- terest in American verse. It would be very surprising to see them agreeing on the merits of particular poems; and l am not at all sure that it would be either a pleasing or an encouraging fact if they cid agree.
 Every normally constituted person is fond of poetry. It does not take educa- tion or cultivation to make a man fond of it. Illiterate people have always liked poetry-not always the best, by any means, but some times, no doubt, the pest. But though all natural people like poetry, they do not, by any means, like the same poetry; and if they did, all mankind must have managed to get on the same level, which would be calamity.
 Nor are two people, both of equally ex- quisite degree of cultivation, likely to dBitC III tHeT Juu6lncHt Ol pOttIy. IHc two, though equal in cultivation, may be very diverse in temperament, and poetry Is a product of temperament.
 More than that, a man may be very likely to disagree with himself in mak- ing up his judgments of verse. If poetry is a product of temperament, it is also a product of moods.
 And, finally. since every man is a devel- opment, his fancy in poetry ought to de- velop. We rise on stepping stones of our dead tastes to higher things-or think do.
 Therefore, not only must every man be his own anthology, but he must make himself a new anthology with every phase of his development.
 
 It is not surprising. therefore, to see our Philadelphia contemporarys sympo- sium on the best American poem result ing in anarchy. Dr. van Dyke puts Emerson's "Threnody' at the top; no one else seems to mention it at all Seven persons out of ninety-four place Bryant Water Fowl' at the head-a judgment which would not be indorsed, proba bly,. in the most distinctive academic circles. Three persons nominate The Star Span- gled Banner" Six persons out of the ninety-four agree that Holmes Cham bered Nautilus' is the best American poem; it is pleasing to see that this really noble poem has a plurality over certain others.
 Poems which have four votes each are Bryant's ''Thanatopsis. Lowell's Com memoration Ode" and Walt Whitmans 8 Captain. My Captain;' Mrs. Howes Battle Hymn has five votes. Other poems which get one or two votes each are Buchanan Reads .The Closing Scene,' Whittier's Tn School Days" Longfellow's Psalm of Life Whittier s .'Eternal Goodness" Fields Little Boy Blue,'' Longfellow's ''The Children s Hour" Stedmans "Troujours Amour and Elizabeth Akers Aliens Rock Me to Sleep
 All mighty good poems Mir steadman himself has declared for Dr. Thomas Will liam Parsons "On a Bust of Dante" :" This exquisite poem. by the way. is gen orally mentioned among the very first of American poems by the poets themselves.
 It was thus mentioned several years ago when the late Richard Henry Stod- card was asked by the editor of the Mall and Express to select for this paper the best ten poems by American authors. MT. Stoddard's list was as follows: 'The Death of the Flowers" William Cullen Bryant; "On the Bust of Dante" T. w. Parsons; "The Arrow and the Song. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow; ''The Last Leaf" Oliver Wendell Holmes: ITO Helen" Edgar Allen Poe; Concord Mon- un ent hymn ("By the rude bridge that arched the fiocdD. Ralph Waldo Emer- son; .Bedouin Love Song Bayard Fay Tor; ."rhe Doorstep" Edmund Clarence Stedman; "The First Snowfall" James Russell Lowell and "A Song ("Bring me the juice of the honey fruit'), Thomas Buchanan Read.
 This list included at least three poems that are very little known-the last three in the list to-wt. All three possess the quality of charm-the indefinite some thing which makes a poem transcend the oanons Mir Stoddard was as a critic so susceptible to this very quality that he could not possibly have excluded Par sons '.On the Bust of Dante" from his list, in spite of a certain prejudice which he could not repress against the poets of his native New England And, by the way, of the authors of MT. Stoddard s ten best American poems. eight were na- lives of New England and two of Penn sylvania-
 Also by the way. it would certainly not be amiss to include one of Mir. Stoddards 2 among the ten best American poems; and if had the nomination, I think I should name "Mors ct Vita"
 MT Stoddard's list would be unsatisfac- tory at this day from the fact that his taste practically excluded everything that was dated later than 1860.
 Whether or not poetry itself Is properly the mirror of the time, anthologies cer- tainly are mirrors. They must reflect the spirit of the time, or they are useless; for we certainly cannot make anthologies for the dead. There is occasion every ten