Pine Bluff daily graphic. (Pine Bluff, Ark.) 1893-1942, 1919-10-01
A MODERN AENEAS.

Oh, for another Vergil! Such an
epic voice alone should sing airships
and the poet who, first driven 10
ennui by the qualification of all his
aesthetic appetites had bethought
himself of seeking out some new splr-
itual inspiration by removing him.
self from this humdrum existence.
But the Fates who weave and spin
the thread of life had decided that
the skein of Gabrielle D'Annunzio' S
) mortal existence was not mete for the
clipping. Fortunately or unfortu-
ately there came in the great war q
call to chivalry and honor more
sacred even than that from which
arose the great Trojan struggle. But
Homer is dead and SO is Vergil.
DAnnunzio, however, still lives and
! mayhaps like Xenophon he can tell
the story of his own Anabasis, says
the Commercial Appeal.
No myth with which we may en-
shroud Aeneas or Hestor can make
them greater bulwarks of their ma
tons power than does the glamor in
which our modern Aeneas clothes
himself. The hero of the Aeneid,
'~born in the mind of Fancy, became
i'll Vergils hand the father of Latin
power. He was the idealized begin
ming of the greatest empire that the
world has ever known. But much of
this empire has crumbled away, and
this flesh and blood son of the earlier
Trojan prince finds that it is neees-
sary to restore to his native land a
part OF the domain of the Caesars.
Aeneas could not have set out from
Troy more burdened with care nor
with purer crusading spirit than
D'Annunzio imagines he departed
from that Eternal City that once "sat
upon her seven hills and ruled the
world Ii that early epic figure of
Troy bore his father on his shoulder
carried his household goods in one
hand and led his son with another he
did not carry in its entirety, as
pAnnunzlo says he does, the full
burden of nations destiny. How
ever, this may be, we feel sure that
there We're not few Didos who
waved away their hearts with their
hands when this latest set out to do
or die for Italia.
There may be no Latinus in Fiume
with whom Gabrielle NAV allv him.
self in laying the foundation stones
OF the new Roman empire, but why
should there be one? D'Annunzio
himself is sufficient. He tells US so
himself. With burst of ardent TO.
matlclsm animating his CLASSICAL
! purpose he denies that he is on a
"flambouyant, glory seeking adven,
ture," but insists that his SIS u
divine mission, no less, pure and holy
than the crusaders of ancient times. =
Would it not be unjust to one whose
imagination and soul is fired with
such heavenly light to continue the
comparison of D'Annunzio with his
ancient and mythical examplar? But
Gabrielle himself will not let US for
get. The ancient Aeneas. so we read
IN our school days, was slain in bat
tie, but his body was never found.
No mere man shall strike down our
modern Aeneas, however, for does he
not tell US:
"What is death to me who
have already braved it two score
and more times? What is the
value of this poor crust, my
body? When Fiume is definite
ly won l am going to fly from
Rome to Tokyo, hoping de-
voutly that typhoon will end
my life far out in the Indian
Ocean
Our new Aeneas is nothing if not
kpremely poetical We must pre-.
\anthat in his pure imagination all
of barometrical reading or
$ 1gical forecasts will be dis
will sail out into linai-
bird may be swept I'M