The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-06-01

if his country had been England, and possibly as
well if it had been France. And if we had time
and patience to chase that reproach further and
a club on it We might enumerate the Old World
authors who had to come into their owns by way of
These States.
But we are DEPRESSING We were speaking Of a
change. Whoever pointed out WHITMAN to Ameri-
cans during his prime failed to make them see him.
Nowadays we do see him, whether or not large
percentage of us understand what We see. None Of
with reputation to risk cares to risk it in cry
ing him down, nor does anybody with temerity and
turn for sensational advertising pick him cut to
try live jackal tricks upon. You can still hear it
earnestly debated whether he is poet or not, and
the negative debaters are not confined to the class
who think poets write rhymes, ve-foot blank verse,
or This is the forest primcva'' and tinkle-tnkle
Hiawatha, and nothing else. But even if he was not
poet the negative side respectfully allows that he
was WALT WHITMAN, and the topsy -turvy question
bold Whitmanian might retort with, "Are most
poets WALT WHITMAN or not? - would not be found
wildly preposterous to-day.
Centenary apart, the case of WALT's fame in
America just now seems peculiarly good he is still
" advanced but the vanguard in force is up with
him To that extent he has indeed come into his
own, and richly. Would he call it his owni)
"Unclean" No More.
Then another change touches another standing
reproach, namely, that Columbia beside her reading
lamp is prude, that jaundiced descendant of the
Covenanters ethics sits cross-legged over the des
tnies of our artistic ofspring-as Milton did not
say. We have got to the point at least the big and
little superior persons among jointly have, Of
agreeing with the Old World that our two first
poets are WHITMAN and Poe; and an impression
is current that the why it took us so long to
place Them aside from the saw about the prophet
In his own country, is that Poe Bad Man, who
Drank; whereas WHITMAN, although Good Man
there are those who strive grotesquely to make him
out Bad, but they have to go wide around the barn
and over the muckheap and through the burdocks),
had an Indelicate Mind With regard to Poe the
reasoning seems sound. With regard to WHITMAN,
we like Prof. PHELPs's hypothesis better 1t sounds
more plausible though the scandalous reputation Of
Leaves of Grass probably challenged the notice Of
some of the men who became WHITMAN's cham
pions. Anyway, however that may be and whatever
may be the present influence of prudery upon
American appreciation, the scandal is now stale and
blown away Leaves of Grass is in good odor
No longer does even Whilomville scurry to hide
WALT WHITMAN when the pastor turns in at the
gate. Instead you would find that Whilomville
makes point of owning gilt-topped, le-edged
edition of his book-although we fear, it shelves
him behind glass along with BURNS and BYRON and
SHELLEY and SwINBURNE, other bugaboos of yester-
day who innocuous classics to-day and whom
no family that means to do well by the children
should be without Meanwhile, incidentally, plenty
of our respectable publishers and editors are put
ting forth, quite matter of course, plenty Of
and prose that is as frank" as frank can be-
and only Mr.. SUMNER and his school do so much as
think about the pillory.
Columbia prude about WALT nowadaysf OF
course not. That particular dragon which helped
bar his way to his own has lost its fangs and its
birthstone breath and stretched its senile, feeble
length to snooze in the clear light of day.
Still-has he come into his owni