The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1912-02-06
POETIC TO
K
Snr,riein"Iy Few in the Past. but
This Centenary Year May See
Many.

great Victorian n0Yelists blrth II 10 DC
celebrated this month. ana II am iiot
mistaken, the magazines OF the heA'
fey weeks VIII bring forth such a
plcnitudc of quatrains, sonnctS, ana
odes To Dickens, as the tnsllsh-
Speaking world has not seen before.
MY last statement is not nearly 50
strong rs it sounds; for a moment ;
Investigation will show that as q mat
ter Of fact the poetic tributes 70
Charles Dickens are Amazingly low.
When We consider the tremendous
popularity which Dickens enjoyed
f,Cm the time when the world first
became acquainted with ~"IickWick
Papers" TO the day Of his death, and
when we remember the many TRENDS
Dickens had among the poets OF ms
day, both English and American, we
might Well expect that the poems
lluding him would fiji a very good
sized anthology.
Eut what do we find? We find
that Frank 4. Marzials, in his Dickens
photography. cites only thirty-one
verse tributes TO Dickens: and while
MI. Marzials' list is not quite com
plete, it is so perilously near com
rlete ~ to show plainly that exc
was indeed a genius unsung. More
over, OF the thirty-one poems in the
list, nearly all are from the pens OF
obscure writer's.
And this brings us to the question::
Why have Dickens eminent poetic
friends left on the pages of their
books no trace OF their esteem for
himf Dickens, We recall, was q very
intimate friend Of both Browning and
Tennyson. his friendship for the lat
ter being so close thar he named n
Of his sons Alfred Tcnnyson. Yet
neither Browning nor TcnnysOn wrote
= stanZa in appreciation or memoir
of Dickens. Our own Longfcllow, too,
had acquaintance with Dickens, and
III q letter to Ohm Forster in 1870
hc Expressed poignant grief over the
death Of til" Grcat master Of hunlor
and pathU&; but il W. scan the
pages Of LcnGfellow's poetic works,
We shall look in vain for Il word there
about Dickens.
Vt the time OF Dickens death such
poets MS ltoS5ctti. William Morris,
Matthew Arnold, Lowell, Whittier,
Holmes. Whitman. and LaIiicr were
writing: hut if the archaeoloG!st Of the
year 1900 had to depend upon THEN
verse for Information about Dickens,
he would never learn that such u per
son as Charles Dickens had existed.
And doesn't this al! seem very
strange, when We bring to mine the
Ioyaulcnc&s OF Dickens character and
the hcurt-throbs with which his chap
tcrs abound?
When one thinks of poetic tributes
TO Dickens. one naturally thinks first
"f Bret Harte's famous poem,
Dickens in Camp" That piece is
probably familiar to all OF my read
cys. but as Il Dickens centennial
comes only once in 4 undre years
ii will hardly be out Of place for me
to do honor to the occasion by quot
ing the lIarte poem here:
Above the pines the moon was slowly
drifting.
The river sang below;
The dim Sicrras. far beyond, uplift
Their minarcts OF snow.
The roaring campfire. with rudi
huInor. painted
The ruddy tints OF health
on haggard face and form tha
dropped and tainted
In the fierce race for wealth.;
Till one arose. and from his pack
Scant treasure
\ boarded volume drew.
And cards were dropped from hand
Of ~listleSs eisure
To tell the tale anew.
Nnd then. while round Thorn shadow
gathered faster,
And as the freight fell,
lite read aloud the book wherein tn
Master
Had writ Of Little Nell
Perhaps twas hoyish fancy-for tn
reader
Was youngest Of them all
l;ut, as he read, from clustering pin
and cedar
\ silence seemed to fall;
The iir-trees, gathering closer in IT
shadows,
Listened in every spray.
While the whole camp with Mel
on English meadows
Wandered and lost their way.
Md soon in mountain solitudcs-
O'ertaken
AS by some spell divine
Their cares dropped from them Ill
the needles shaken
From out the gusty pine.
Lost is that camp and wasted all