The Caucasian. (Shreveport, La.) 1900-192?, 1913-02-23
Notes and News
of Interest

| ~Ueu poet utes tiie tIuslC VI Ills
words haunt our thoughts, and the
beauty OF things, which is better
seen from his Interpretation, is
more fully realized.
We repeat over again his words,
and wonder why we did not love
him more in life; why the golden
cup filled with the nectar Of appre-
citation, was not pressed to his
thirsty lips. The poet lives ami
loves and dies, and the world is
poorer. SO it seemed when the mes
sage came that the gentle poet of
the Sierras, Joaquin Miller, had died
in his little cabin in the Piedmont
hills. The infirmities of age and dis
ease had come upon him, and his
lutte was silent many months before
his death.
AT eleven years of age Cincinnatus
Heiner Miller went to the far north
west with his father and worked for
a while on a farm, but agriculture
and schooling were not to his liking.
His impetuous temperament led
him into adventure and danger. He
tried to study law, but the lure Of
the woods and the wilds was upon
him, and he broke away and became
express messenger for the mining
camps in Idaho. All the time his
heart was singing songs that soon
found expression and soon the
world had another poet. His Songs
of the Sierras" attracted immediate
attention both in this country and
in England He wrote rapidly and
his books sold rapidly. Formal crit
les declared that he lacked culture,
but the announcement was no hurt
to the man whose study for thirty
years had been the plains and the
mountains, the sky and the sea. The
more just and kindly critics said
that had he been better educated,
academic learning might have
robbed his productions of the Wild
ing flavor which is one of their
chief charms, might have ruled the
freshness of style and vigor of
thought that are his chief charac-
teristics. 1.-THE Ship of the DESERT
and Kit Carson's Ride" are among
his we'll known and populax long
poems, and beautifully illustrate his
qualities of style. Of his shorter
poems 1.-The Last Hymn" and Down
in the Dust" breathe a gentler ca
dence and a deep melancholy. Death
has crowned the poet with imper-
ishable glory.
From 1.-THE Ship Of the Desert"
What captain knew
The straits that led to leads like
these?
Blow south-sea breeze or north-sea
breeze
What spiced wind whistled through
this sail?
What banners streamed above these
seas?
And what strange seamen answered
back
To other sea kings beck and hail
That blew across his foamy track?
Sought Jason here the golden fleece?
Came Trojan ship or ships of
Greece?
Came decks dark-manner from sui
try Ind,
Wooed here by specious wooing
wind
So like grand sweet woman when
A great love moves her soul to men.
Game here strong ships Of Solomon
In quest of Ophir by Cathey?
Sit down and dream of seas with
drawn,
And every sea-hearth drawn away
Sit down. sit down!
What is the good
That we go on still fashioning
Great iron, ships or walls of wood,
High masts Of oak, or anything?
Lol all things moving must go by,
The sea lies dead. Behold this land
Sits desolate in dust beside
His snow-white seamless shroud of
sand;
The very clouds have wept and died,
And only God is in the sky.
Joaquin Miller.
Bereavement.
Relatives and friends in Shreve-
port of Mrs. Lucy Gooch Turner re-
ceived with deep sorrow the tidings