The Green Forest tribune., 1916-09-08


 and prancing, long-legged lovers of the moon are often captured and broken and tanned to trade and industry by the more sordid citizenry. They yoked to the handle end of the blow, chained to the desk; by the hundreds and thou sands they become clerks and statesmen and rail- road presidents and novelists and business men of all sorts.
 James Whitcomb Riley was a Hoosier who happily escaped he was never captured, never -yesl tlh 2 - T. s tftam tho restaf IS revealed only in flashes, remembered but vaguely from the days of our own happy Hoosier- dom, he continued to steadily; he lived among them familiary to the end, and until the end was their interpreter to
 Bud come here to your uncle spell,' says Riley in effect and I'll show you not only fairy but fairy who has for the moment chosen to be just as much of a Hoosier as the Raggedy Man. or Orphant Annie, or Old Kingry or the folks at Griggsby Staton.'
 "The critics and the learned doctors of liter ature already debating as to whether Riley had imagination only fancy Ct would be terrible calamity to some of them if they said 1t was imagination and it officially declared later to be merely fancy; that is the sort of mistake that damns critic and makes the sons and grandsOns of critics meek, hacked, apolo- getic young men) And doubtless the point is ex- ceedingy important. For if a poet has imagi- nation they say his work is significant. And if he has only fancy his work is not significant. "The chief merit of Riley's dialect verse which is the most popular part of his production and the part with which the critics chiefly con- cern themselVes-is its effectiveness as a medium for character portrayal. Whimsical, lovable homeiy, raey quaint, salty pathetic, humorous, tender his dialect poems; essentially he has shown us life a superior writer of prose sketches might dO adding the charm of his yri- ciSm.
 But personally never like him so well as when he is writing sheer moonlight and music. Probably no poet who ever wrote English-cer- tainly no American poet-got more luscious lan- guage than Riley. A sweetness that is not so sugary that it coys, having always a why tang. For instance from The Flying Islands of the Night:
 in lost hours of lute and song
 When he was but a prince-I but mouth For him to lift up sppingly and drain
 To his most ultimate of stammering sobs And maudlin wanderngs of blinded breath
 There is no better evidence of the genuine ness of Rley's sentiment, particularly in the dia- feet poems than the discretion with which he touches the pathetic chord when he touches it at all. One of the most popular poems he ever wrote was 'Old-Fashioned Roses, and one word too much. one pressure the least bit too insstent would nave made the thing offensive as q vaudeville ballad. The taste which told him to be simple and the sincerity which begat the taste save the verses from the reproach
 His verses for children and about children could only have been written by man whose love and understanding of children was real, for children are quick to detect and repudiate any thing Of the sort that is pumped up for effect and they contributed enormously to the general feeling of affection for him. The regard of the children was in way testimonial to his per sisting youthfulness of spirit he was still their playmate; perhaps it is earnest of mmor- tallty, II immortality be- Certainly love en- dures longer than anything else, and this man with the childlike sweetness in his soul goes rom us loved as few men have been."