Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1911-09-14
A Word on RiIey's Poetry.
From the INdianannlis News

So much of Riley's poetry is being
printed in the press these days that it
almost constitutes a popular revival. II
these reprinted poems move the reader to
take down one of the many volumes hat
hold Riley's work. Il desultory reading,
even. will be likely to leave an impress
sion OF something like a new discovery,
perhaps a feeling akin to establishment,
and certainly one of admiration. at the
amount of good poetry that he has poured
out these long years. and at the arnaz-
ing versatility of it. From grave to
gay: from lively to severe it runs, not
the whole gamut of feeling, but so wide a
range OF 1t as to appeal to most of the
moods that sweep mankind like the
clouds and sunshine that mark the sue
cession Of days. This impression is a her
aid of that coming classification and adj
publication which await all production that
is of greater weight and value than the
passing mood or occasion that gave 1t
birth. and 1t is a sure sign of it. We
would not try to anticipate it In any de-
gree If we could. But thus much may
be. said. hat no one ever survived wen
to a limited degree that did not make a
vivid contemporaneous impression. That
Riley has done this, his day n genera
tion attest.
But better testimony still is this fresh-
ness with which his words come again,
NAAOb Ia VI iANOh VIZ
%heartiness, the poignancy with which they
touch the varied feelings. giving to them
a vividness OF expression that r%evalues
them and leaves with those that have
experienced then dumbly, a sense of ex-
altation that they have entertained an
angel unawares. that they may once
have held as a passing fancy, belongs to
the stream of permanence deep broad
enough to water fields beyond the hOri-
zon. 1t is this power OF the poet to dis
Germ the permanent and general amid the
ephemeral and particular. this instinct
that divines and divides the wheat from
the chaff in the great and ever living
field Of human emotion. that stamps him
as more than the idle singer of an empty
day."
Yet 1t was the shadow, or one had better
say the brilliancy of this very impression
that. in his early appearance. obscured
his proportions and confused his values.
HIS dialect poems. by which he first won
recognition right here at home." and
then, like an increasing light throughout
the English speaking world. he exQuisitely
interpreted the scenes and emotions that
hold the broad experience of everyday
life. SO unerringly defined and described
the thousand and one unnoted and un-
named fancies and feelings that make up
SO much of the life of .narticulate hui
manly. that they seemed too god to be
! true. from the true poets pen, they
ave to airy nothing
A local habitation and a name.
They did more. They dignifed the heart
of the workaday man. and thus it is that
this part Of Riley's work. as it poured
forth in such amazing volume. showing
that 1t was q true we'll spring, flowed
first Gas 1t came firstl into the general
heart and left smaller room for the APP
peal to the higher emotions that sound
with a note no less true through his SER
iOus verse.
He sang to one clear harp in divers tones.