The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1910-11-07

u IL u
ment, when speed is approaching its final limit
of distance, when the genius OF invention and
OF life is directed toward humiliation of old
concepts and against the peace of once gentle
ears
For poetry, for all its various definitions. is
In some very definite respects simply the sen
sorry music Of state OF mind. IT is expressive
of deep and all but silent moods the whispered
musings of the soul. the unconfessed but riot
ousiy melodous ouspourings Of the heart. In 1T
foe all these years have been suggested the
cadeRcies that make a silence dear, the pipes
that play in timid woodland wales the caress OF
moonlight and the shimmering beauty of Sill
yered waves. Poetry has been gentle and still
in the main, for all that il sometimes plays like
bugle calling TO the charge. or on occasion
throbs like an organ in cathedral music. The
heart has been its harp VIII it learn to play
on an instrument So newly and SO strangely
strung?
These reflections are neecssitated By the sight
of item in which il is briefly mentioned that
the Princess de polignac-~onee Miss Singer
has been going UP and down the grand canal
in Venice III motor boat While gondoliers OF
cntthroat persuasion ceased in establishment
their heavenly warbngs 10 row desperately
out Of her path, this modern member of the
old aristoeraey has carried the new thought
guilty. and stateliness. and romance She has
puffed up and down, past the crumbng cathe-
drals, past the palaces of the Doges with her
motor running at fun stroke and the stencil of
gasoline making the atmosphere of the old wat
er highway reminiscent of that newer road that
lobster palaces She has brought din and smoke
and speed. where there was onee---and had been
for centuries,grace, and eisure and elegance
all the more eloquent because triGe poeiieally
frayed at the wristbands She has substituted
machinery for lace. explosions for sonnets. a
siren for The Iove-calls that once gave n LIQUID
note Of sentiment to scenes both picturesque and
grandiloquent Venice-where pride was once
ennobled. where Byron sighed and poets aud
artists one and all have made the pilgrimage to
work and dream-Veniee where Browning
seized upon some Of his most tenuous inspira-
tons, has been given over to the automobile in
the shape of a motor boat, Soon the aeronlane
will commence to circle its minarets and
towers: its days will be shot through with de.
donations by land and sea; its eharm-onee so
all pervasiye~will remain as a piece of rare
china saved to some squaid home as momente
of bait 1,,Flp v,a1 81.
shell of its former greatness. storied Venice in
The era of gasoline, viii longer hold not even
the beauty of a ruin,
Where then, will be the poetry Of Venice
the poetry of the WORLD How will it look
how will it sound? VIII it catch and repea,
staccato phrase. III explosive sylabes? VIII
it reproduce the motor boat and the aeroplane:
Or is ii possible that. even In a perfect fusiliade
Of street. canal and air discords, il will still
cling to the ghost Of the dead past and make
poetry, when verse is SO dignified dead
err thing than now Some wears ago Kiplinp
attempted 10 go Walt Whitman one better and
sing the song OF strong men and big machines
in technical word and measure In MEAN
drews hymn the big eccentrcs played large
II eccentric, part in poetry But the innovation
not copied and it not persisted in
Since then the run of poets has been engns
To Pau. and PHYLLIS. and Sappho as of wore
But can they hold out much longer agans,
the new ORDER Can they dream successfully
upon the Bridge of Sighs--when a motor boa,
eleaves the waves beneath it, and an aeroplano
threatens overhead to spill its modern freight
In ancient places We doubt it, Even more we
anticipate with alarm the modern meter when
modern aspiration.
ISLANDER As CAMPAIGN THUNDER