The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1907-08-29
Elm Excursion into Poetry.


never been surpassed, and even as
poet, he towers above his cOntempora-
ries.
After his death, poetry fell upon evil
days. Imposters like Macpherson AID
Chatterton pretended to find ancient
manuscript. Goldsmith, more famous
as novelist, Gray, whose place in the
Hail of Fame rests on the same basis
as that of Poe, that he was master of
form, and Cowper, who combined the
attributes of lunatic and genial humor-
ist, fill out the eighteenth century roll.
At the end of the century, however.
poetry ceased to hide her diminished
head. Bobbie Burns, most popular,
because most democratic, of all poets
warbled his native wood-notes wild.
OF Burns popularity there can be no
doubt; of the exact place in literature
to which he can be assigned there is
much question. Carlyle, most erratic
of critics, placed him above Byron, but
it is perhaps safer to say that Burns is
rated, even more than Keats, at what
he might have been, had he lived.
The Lake School, CoIeridge, Southey
and Wordsworth, included three men
of very different tastes and abilities,
whom common friendship drew to-
gether. Southey has long been obso-
iete, aud Coleridge's poems, wonder
fully imaginative as they are, are now
chiefly used in the schoolroom. Words
worth, too, like Tennyson and Long
fellow, suffers from being inseparabiy
associated with the schoolgirl; and it
is certainiy true that there are pas
sages of Wordsworth's poetry which
Ella Wheeler Wilcox would have been
ashamed to write. Byron on the other
hand, suffers from having been the
fashion. 1t is difficult to even hint at
q liking for the Byronic fervor at the
present day in either social or literary
circles.
i Shelley and Keats are usually linked
together, somewhat artifcially, althe
they had few characteristics in com.
mon. But Keats, consummate artist
, as he was, died at the age Of twenty
four, giving promise of fame which
, might have rivaled Goethe's. Oi
, Shelley it is almost impossible for thu
writer to speak with moderation, al
his lyrics seem of an almost unearthly
beauty. On careful consideration
however, Shelley must be denied dra
8 matte power and it must be admitted
!, that his poetry at times falls foul O.
: Max Nordau's theory of the association
= of ideas, as there are lyrics in whicl
. Shelley loses himself in the clouds.
: OF Scott, no advertisement is needed
!. Scott, Campbell and Macaulay form
b group dear to the heart of our child
h hood, or rather, perhaps, a group dea
Il to the hearts of the last generation o
Q children. Many man whose concern
r have led him far away from poetry
: cherishes secret recollection of tn
: time when he declaimed "How wei
f Horatius kept the bridge" or Breathe
: there man with soul so dead" Venel
q able literary critics always underrat
d this kind of poetry, for the same reaso
e that boy past certain age dislike
" to be seen playing marbles.
el Coming to more recent times, time
8 of which it is impossible yet to obtai
ir a proper perspective, we notice Ma
81 thew Arnold, too great q critic to be
IT great poet, but whose works, few a
r they are, are polished, as if to pleas
= himself were the hardest task. Al
n other much-quoted poet is Edwar
1T Fitzgerald, whose "translation" of th
1T Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam was i
reality an original and beautiful poen
at gfasping the spirit Of the Orient in
isl manner which makes Moore's sLal
Dt Rookh" and the later Edwin Arnold
ID Light Of Asia" seem feeble In con
III paris0A.
mi The mention of Robert Bfownir
1e calls up Q vision Of bespectacled spil
oil sters and men with long hair and Il
he probable that that great poet must ps
I'd 1.-THE penslty OF his eccasIonai obscurit
dYl Much Of his work. however b 90 q
sci from being obscure that : child con