Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1907-07-06
THOMAS BAILEY ALDRlCH.
His Perfect Light Touch and the ART
In His Grave Poems.


In His Grave Poems.
II is n notable fact that while the
anne of Thomas Bailey Aldrlch STANDS
\ the popular mind for the light touch
n verse-a touch that few In our time
ave been able to equal in delcacy
nd attractiveness- greater part oi
nc worse ranges from the serious 10
no tragic. The subjects In majority |
y cases are not those which the casual
,aoder might expect from the author OF
many of his we'll known songs ana cpl
,odes.
Aldrich's light touch seems TO us
most nearly perfect where the SUBJECT
$ apparently most personal us Ill 'ne
lyric, Forever ana
Day."
/ little know or care
II the blackbird on the bough
Is filling all the air
with his soft crescendo now,
For she has gone away
And when she went she TOOK
The springtime in her look
The peachblow on her cheek'
The blue from out the May
And what she calls week
Is forever and a day!
It's little that l mind
How the blossoms, pink or white.
At every touch of wind
Fall attending with delight,
For In the leafy lane,
Beneath the garden boughs'
And through the silent house
One thing alone l seek
Until she come again
The May is not the May
And what she calls week
Is forever and a day!
Such q lyric as this would seem 10
no as sure of keeping its place IN ENG
ush literature as any poem OF It's class
that the centuries have sanctioned.
The art in his grave poems Is reaiiy
in keeping with that of his hghter
verse But the reader is sure that the
careful workmanship Is not the result
Of mere artifice; that 1t comes from "
sense Of beauty and the poets pure de-
Giro for perfection. There Is no ming
for the sake of filing, but conscieh
tious seeking for the right phrase. lie
confessed once to q search or days loi
what he thought the absolutely righ
adjective TO describe the cry OF the SEA
gull hitting at last upon the wore
"netulant." and this persistency wa'
characteristic.
Often he struck the note Of high pa
trlotism. and many are his poems tina
deal with the mysteries Of life ah'
death. He wrote fit and beautiru
threnodies, and in his verse one come
constantly upon startling hints ant
suggestions concerning nature, human
fate and the spirit world, as In "Ren
! contre," Identity" IL Nex Me NO
With Brooding on the Years.
; Mood" and "Apparitions," poems whic
Z have a new poignancy In the light Q
) his departure.
APPARITIONS.
At noon of night and at the night 8 pale e'
Such things have CHANGED 10 me ,ou
AS one, by day. WouAo s0"iNe'
friend
9 For fear Of mockery.
Shadows. you say, mlrages Of the brain'
know not, faith. not l.
IL n more strange the dead should wa
again 81,
Than that the quick should die?
Aldrich ought to have lived long
= and continued TO write for many yea
TO come, for he was in little danger
failing in taste and rigid self criticisI
q But. after all, his life had remark
bile completeness. His boyish attal
: ment of fame made him not less D
q more careful in his art from the Degi
. ming. There never was time wh'
. he did not hold high the standard
4 art and not less for himself than
% others. With increasing years
o touch grew more assured and bis INA
# inatiOn deeper.
10 Neither in his genial prose wrlti
70 nor in his verse was fully reflected I
N wit which made personal intercour
10 with him a rare privilege. For privd
Io conversation was reserved the tre'
"a IRE of his whimsical and never IL
~ ing humor. Doubtless many OF
m sallies will be jotted down by frlen
~ and preserved by his biographer,
20 the manner Of his appealing persina
q. and Illuminating witticisms can ne'
be reproduced.
Nor can be told yet the story OF
chief happiness-of that life OF ms
ry arabic affection which helped to ma
IG. his career one of the most fortun
he In the annals of llterature.-Century