Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-09-04
THE GOWNSMAN

into megalomania. If first appearance would
cure, the matter might be simple. But this
form of personal qualification grows with
that whereon it feeds; and the head further
enlarges. but not always proportionately the
brains within 1t has been said that once in
her life every woman has been beautiful,
doubtless in some cases quite briefly. So
some men are poetical by moonlight, in
sprngtime, in wooing time-but do not carry
their poetry home with them later. More-
over, wise dispensation of Providence has
ordered it that the majority Of mankind shall
be POLITICALLY inartcuate and even that
among those who will write, many shall be
incoherent Has the reader never perpe
tratcd an immortal ode i'm his dreams, only
to have it turn out in the morning a rat-tat-
tat sort of thing that would be discreditable
to the obviousness of Walt Mason?
TN THE Musical consort of the worlds
i poetry the poetaster is the megaphonist
noisy, ill-disciplined; but even he cannot
drown the grand swell of harmony which Is
the worlds lyrical soul. The poetling, on the
other hand, pules on the flute pulses on
the lute, happy in his own fatuity--but
nobody marks him, and the sounds he makes
echo not far beyond his own hearing. Be
tween these two are the poets the ma jor
poets, the commanding poets. few as the
greater stars and as far between; and the
minor poets, so-called not wholly because,
for the most part, they sing, plaintively, but
merely because they are less than the great
ones although often true, as tunefu as
beloved
FONCRETELY, the poet is often a very in
" teresting specimen Of the race. The
Gownsman has met some poets in his day
or rather in theirs. He has narrowly escaped
meeting some others. He was once in a
London station out of which Tennysop had
Just taken his departure He once barely
missed seeing Browning at garden party.
He went skating on the Schuylkil one fine
lecture abominably delivered by Matthew
Arnold. These were some of the things
which might have been. But he is proud
to recall that he was one who helped AL
unbeknownst' to make granite tomb for
the yet living good gray poet. Walt Whit
man that he knew the ever courteous Sted-
man, that he met with awe James Russell
Lowell. that he has listened to Mr.. Yeats
in private monoloque, had the adorable Mr.
Masefeld In his own study and sat with
Mr.. Frost on his own New Hampshire hills
| But the Gownsman has caught the contagion
| of egotism from this converse with poets
| PHILADELPHIA is full of poets; they
i hustle in our streets To range among
| them offhand. Harrison Morris was a poet
as delightful to read as to know-until the
iron entered his SOUL and Francis Williams
is reported to have written epic on
| Lincoln, fine thing for loyal son of Gin
| cinatus to do Good gray Handy Hay has
courted his Muse as a lover for lifetime,
| and she has been compliant. Doctor Watson
| has practiced poetry as successfully as med-
| cine for years, and John Haney has written
| 1t well as he has taught it. Wharton
Stork is a large metrcal magnate, SO to
| speak, for not only does he make poetry and
| translate 1t; he likewise garners and pub
| fishes 1t for others and Harvey Watts is a
| veritable wizard with his pen, for better
| reasons, but also because he contrives to
| write Over There over here. Horace Trau-
| bel has nobly maintained the great traditions
| of Whitman over the river and Richard
| Heckscher. though no longer with u.s. is not
| forgotten for the fervency that was his
owen Wister once wrote a certain poem
but we will not allude to 1t. And, Youngest
| wren of nine" there is our own Kit Morley
| ready. witty, sound, in whose education the
Gownsman claims modest part The
| GownSman will not crafty the vanity of a
certain Philadelphia poet, who took his tai,
ents and his crotchets away with him to
London. by miscalling all these the shillings
and pence of Philadelphia poets" None
shall pound so ungraceful an allusion out OF
| your Gownsman, who apologies for the
scores that he has left unsung
TINDLY. simply, gracious Joyce Kilme
n has gone, "a minor poet" if you will
| but leaving the world the happier, the bette
for his song. Like England's Rupert Brooke
Kilmer went blithely to war, a volunteer.
patriot. a martyr to a great cause In hi,
own fine words of Brooke:
But let no cloud Of lamentation be
Wheres on a warriors grave. Tyre is hung
VIZ 4 ths vision q his ehivalry..
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