Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1913-10-24
Oidfish on Poets.

L
Oldfish on Poets.
at has been but few years. said
| DR.. oldhsh. since The News published
a map of Indiana literally peppered will
| dots showing the localities which hat
produced the poets who have made this
state famous for it's song. Looking ovel
| that map a day or two ago il was found
strange TO say, that taking the state ovel
| in all its 80 counties, by far the greatei
number of our singers tuned their voices
| in the low fiat Iauds, the rich lands
where grows the yellow corn AS il
fancy wandered through these fields
of maize and music ! could but wonder
having accomplished so much with such
meager inspiration, what they might
have done had they looked ont upon the
ocean vast or dwet upon the towering
mountain top
"Recent as was that map with its null
titudinous dots, it is now as obsolete as
the census OF 1880 Every day brings
forth not one poet, but scores of tender
young poets, and the family that does
not produce at least one ballad maker
may well mourn with Oliver Wendell
Holmes in 1.-The Voiceiess.
Alas for those VINO never sing,
But die with all their music in them.
attention may be called to the fact
that the poetic gift in IndIana-whatever
it may be elsewhere-is net confined to
any particular station in lile but may
range from the humbiest toiier to the
multi millionaire IT is admitted. how
ever, that in the case of the man Sof
many dollars, the gift may be concealed
as inimical to the prosaie matter of fact
life that mighty fnancier is expected
to live, and il is the man Of many dof-
ors--not dollars-whos dares display s,Hi-
der his own name his heavenly endow-
ment.
Meredith Nicholson once told of an
indianapolis millionaire. no longer
among the living. who was afflicted with
the poetic affiatus. 1t would not down
and he did not dare to impart the secret
of this fatal gift to any moneyed asso-
ciate. But one day, no longer able te
hide this sweet but guilty knowledge.
he took a passive newspaper man up the
elevator to the fifth story of the Indiana
Trust building and there in far-away
corner, removing crumpled paper from
his breast. he found relief in reading
poem of II long stanzas.
1T is worthy of more than passing re-
mark that whatever has been accom-
plished by Indiana poets has been
achieved by their own energy and tai
ent without any extraneous or artificial
aid It is doubtfuf if even one in a
thousand of our native poets has ever
heard of Walkers Rhyming Dictionary
81 81 t,rTfo ,;eyt,t
so greatly have mtigated their labors
But, no, The dictionary would have
been no aid to them. il would merely
have hobbfed Pegasus and prevented the
natural grace of his flight
perhaps it will not be presumptuous.
even OF the part of one who has but re-
Gently made acquaintance with this
work, to give a modicum of his newly
acquired information to some few of
his brother rhymers who now and then
may be at loss for the word. Walker
published his rhyming dictionary in IT'S,
20 years after the publication of DIR.
Samuel Johnson's dictionary of the Eng
lish language. second edition WAS not
required until 1906. As Walker had been
an actor before he became a teacher of
elocution--the 'eurfew shall not ring to-
night'-he naturally dedicated his work
to David Garrick. whose archaic pro-
nunciation continues after many edi-
tons to pervade the work. E~
Years ago a young Indiana poet wrote
a poem on the shipwreek of the old
Kearsarge (the vanqusher OF the rebel
Alabamal. ON the Reef of Roncador.
The poets heart was all but broken by
other side of the Hudson. the special
point of attack being on a homemade
rhyme of the word war with tar More
than this, and worse, the poem was at
tributed to an Ohio poet.
"Now. long after the wound caused by
this malignant dart was healed. though
the scar is yet in evidence. comes Walk
er.s dictionary with an appendix giving
in detail the poetic license that may be
taken by any deserving rhyme master.
1t shows the liberties that have been
taken by poets Of other days. with Jo-
seph Addison at the head. in this coup
let: s.Es5lsas
When in the suitry glebe I faint.
Or on the thirsty mountains pant.
This was followed by numerous bad
bfSikS n1dde bN II no less eminent poet
than Alexander Pope, with this coupIet
In genial spring beneath the auiv ring
shade.
Where cooling vapors breathe along the
mead.
"Other instances follow. in. which Pope
couples laugh and safe. air and star
wear and star care and war. sphere and
bear. desert and heart. caprice and nice
sphere and there. still and suitable tJ
and this one quite Hihernian-
Here thou great Anna. whom three
realms obey
Dost sometimes counsel take--and some
times tea uayD
"And then follows this most f1agran;
misft;
The vulgar thus through invitation err
AS oft the iearn'd by being singular
(singuuTD
Perhaps it is quite as we'll that oul
poets have been oblivious to these mis-
deeds of greatness, condoned though
they be by the rhyming dictionary. TIL.
very ignorance of our poets has been Il
them a blessing in disguise. They hav,
wrought worthily without any ADVENT
tious aid and their RHYMES have non,