The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1916-04-30

nave the sparkle or that same humOr,
and the glow of good humor.
IN the eighteenth century. when
Pope. Thomson and Gray were writ
ing E:ngland's poetry. that art had it's
own language. quite unlike the COM
mon speech. In their poems, as G. r.
WINCHESTER notes in his Villa m
! Wordsworth Hon. To knoW Him
hobbs Merrill), 1t never rains. but
the clouds indulge their genial
stores; birds do not sing. but "the
plumy people strike at once into the
genera, choir and when the sun seems
to rise it is "reddening PhGbus' that
lifts his golden fire" To readers ac-
customed to that style in diction the
change tn such n fashion as Words
worth's ,"Resolution and I%ndepend-
,nce')-
There was a roaring In the wind all night:
| Tho rain came heavily and fcl, in floods:
But now tho sun Is rising calm and bright.
The BIRDS are singing IN the distant woods
must have been something like the
more recently experienced transition
from nineteenth century forms to the
new" verse of this time. Can we
find in peaceful Wordsworth an an
cestor Of the tuinultuous brood OF to-
day?
The author " Lines Above Tintern
Abbey" the 'Intlmations of Immor-
%tality' and THE Happy Warrior was
also. in tho Prologue To Peter. Bell
the author Of these verses:
There's something in a lying horse.
There's something In a huge balloon;
But through tho clouds I'll never float
Cntil I have u little Boat,
shaped Ike a crescent moon. ss
McauV hiIe unirouhled ! admire
The pointed horns of ms canoe:
Aud, did not pity touch my breast.
To soc how 80 are all dis,rcst.
TIL my ribs achcd, I'd laugh a. YOU.
That would be salable to-day. De-
t%iciency in that most precious of the
SENSES. the sense Of humor. sometimes
led Wordsworth in the wrong direction
across the boundary line between the
sublime and the ridiculous; but persons
who produce and control the present
day supply are no; themselves appar.
entity regulated by that peculiar sense
MI. Winchester does not even suggest
II We shall do no more than suggest
the possibility of revelations to u.
drawn from perusal Of Wordsworth.
poetry with tHis consaneuinity in mind
"Michael' is an excellent composition
TO begin with: il, does exactly wha'
some OF the best verse writer's of tn,
1 al . = nyu p ns. . IN a. 80 l.n. ,. ,.,sI
less visible evidence OF the strugsl,
for naivcte.
la n thins Wordsworth made tn,
essential of poetic composition whic.
many poets Of 1916 seem To avoid de
l!heratelN: the emotional element. viii
1t. dlctation of words Of poetic conten
and association. ore Of his definitions
Of poetry was emotion recollectcd |,
tranquility" And while he sought al
ways for the honest word. the SINGER,
word, he rejected the vocabularies o
exclusively prusaic usage. The new
poets, seeking strong words, fin,
strength IN oCables that are sometime
coarse, sometimes Ugly. general,
common and seldom beautiful.
Mr.. Winchester tells briefly IN
story of Wordsworth's ~uneveniful III,
laying special stress upon the h!c
, hopes aroused in him by his visi, I,
+, France In the first year Of the Re-, O
/. luton and the effect upon his idea
and his poetry of the disappointment
in the next following years: "Fs,
greater calamities can happen TO an
earnest Young man, certainly to an
, NounS poet. than such a collapse 4,
an carly enthusiasm. It hreass tn
spring of !~magina'iou: IL henumbs tn
faculty of faith and shakes his con
Victinn Of the justice that sits benin
he visible scheme nj things" As Il
religion no critic is 50 bitterly hosiil
as the apos,ate, so in suCial-polit,V.
matters no conservative is 50 rigid "A
the disappointed liberal. Wordswor;
abandoned his hope for the improve
ment of mankind 10y masses. We ca,
hardiN consider 1t q calamity for a poe
L. have his eyes opened to the truth.
The friendship Of Wordsworth an
tpl"tidg" affected English l.teratur
II that the acute hut restless into,
! 'o'tu1l temper of 'ulcr!dce, b%eginnin
~ hdudrcd things and finishing non.
u"3hi'~s gained something Of sleaui
= and persistence from the slo,
II ~stuoh"rn resolution of Words
: WORTH while Wordsworth. who's
poetry hitherto had been mostly t,s
work, careful but spi~ritless,' poetry "A
an aNocation. gained inspiration an
~sIontancitN through contact with '',h
; luoyant enthusiasm and warm imagt
nation" of his friend.
In setting forth the character ,
Wordsworth as man ana poet the an
thor Is critically analytic. but II,
, pedantir, lie praises without adula
, ton and condemns without bitterness
Ills criticism is sound.