Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-11-20
THE cOWNsMAN
Tho Frog, and the Mlee

- and the mice; the mice, quick, tenpera-
mental, impetuous the frogs. cold -blooded,
croaking. lespipg at anything. And 1t was
a dreadful hght involving squeaks, snaps,
croaks, Gaps and splashirgs for the inno-
cent bystanders, with flying epithets, dis
Ynembered bits and splinters Of prose,
CLOSELY flying" and as free as the freest
verse that ever exhaed its fragrance cut
Of the soul OF vers librist.
A ND in the days of Swift and the earlier
"A Georges, another similar and terrible
fray arose, dividing families, estranging
friends, becoming political as the court took
one side and an insurgent Prince Of wales
the other. The matter was one of taste,
question Of preference as to the respective
merits, actual and relative, OF opera RS
conducted by Signor Bononcini or by 'Myn-
heer Handel and as it waxed furious, 1t
was only the Philistine who laughed; and
this was his cachinnstion:
Some say. compared to Bononcn!,
That Mynheer Handels but ninny;
Others aver, that he TO Handel
Is scarcely At TO hold candle.
Strange that this difference should BE
TNvixt tweedle-dunn and tweedle-dee!
OF the parties to our recent fray of a not
dissimilar Importance, it might be invidious
TO affirm which is Tweedle dun. The Gowns
man will content himself with gathering up
for the curious one or two OF the chips that
few, having now served their purpose as
missiles the obiter dicta that had little to
do with the case which, by the by, was
not decided
INDUBITABLY there is nothing that
poet, Of old school or new, so resents as
being asked, "What is the meaning, my
dear sir-or madam-of this poem OF yours?"
The meaning of a poem AS if an atmos-
phere, an aroma, "a return" should have
meaning! OF course, in one sense, the
other evening. we did not "get it." 1t was
too subtle for Philadelphia; but we did
not lii e to be told so. 1t was too much like
that exasperating habit which some people
have of talking about the latest book they
happen to have been reading, as II an un-
acquaintance with their particular sreading
on your part were an inferiority. Or like
the man who picks out some unheard-of trihe
in famous museum and rhving about IT,
impresses upon you the futility of all your
knowledge about everything else. The Con-
temporary Club of Philadelphia was treated
with the condescension, the other evening,
of the very choicest Bostonese braR4; but
perhaps we deserve condescension II we sub
scribe to so implicit an acceptance OF the
doctrine OF a speedy evolution in literature,
as it was enunciated then and there, by
which we find a steep artistic ascent from
the plays of Shakespeare to the works of
Pope. and from the works of Pope to the
labors of Mr.. Carl Sandburg.
HOWEVER, because Edgar Allan Poe,
IL then a resident Of Philadelphia, was
| once treated noneN too civilly in Boston, it
hardly be&bmes to return grudge so
long remembered. The Gownsman is very old
fashioned He believes in the sacredness Of
guestship. He IS also very newG tangled; for
| he likewise believes in according to woman
"an the rights and privileges which appcr
tain to man, with few added courtesies
| hers by reason of her womanhood. More-s
over. can it ever be quite fair to twit even
a minor poet of minor school on single
poems or even-shall we call them strong
| lines? Browning once wrote:
"HiggIedy, piggledy. packed we lie,'
Rats in a hamper. pigs in a sty.
FleaJ In a carcase, etc.
| And one line of a fine lyric Of Shakespeare
runs:
"And Marlang nose looks red and raw"
| Want of taste is not confined to the vers
| librists; and some of their critics of the
other evening contrived ip this particular to
excel them.
| TN MUSIC we are more tolerant. We listen
| J. to our 81 900 900 orchestra, pouring
| forth the golden righteousness of Haydn,
the robust sonorousness of Wagner and the
cacophonous inconsequence OF contem-
porary Italian composer. all on the same
| program, and we applaud according to our
tastes. In art, too, we go to the galleries
and see, cheek by jowl, old fashioned art,
eaFa ~ Nd
| things which are so bizarre in their futurity
that he who would "catch on must needs
| 20 the pace. Shall we be less tolerant of
| the art which expresses itself in words? The
| Gownsnan holds to another ancient notion,
| that only those despise form who are unable
| to cornpassit likewise, that form is trivial
matter except as it is fitting to the thought.
which is alone the animating spirit of all
forms of art. Then why in conscience quar-
| rel over the rhyme or the rhymelessness of
\ verse or be jolted out of temper by the
| irregularities Of anybody's feet, metrical or
other? Each year has it's growth of weeds
| and flowers which go with the frost. The
| weeds differ from year to year, while the
grand old trees survive the ages. Among
| the small weeds at times come up what is
| destined to live, however in our ignorance
we may not recognize potential monarch of
the forest yet to be. The scythe of criticism
that would sweep all new things clean would
leave US in the end only dead timber where
with to make cofhrs. Only IN growth and
| chanRe-in art as elsewhere-is there life.
TN THE paper which Miss, Lowell read to
i the Contemporary Club last week, the
| Gownsman found much effective and brill
liant criticism. In her poem with its son
orous return" TO the world "Porsepolis'--
and what matters it whence it came?
-he recognized that power to move, which
is the power of poetry whether it swing to
the pendulum of clock or ripple like
| wayward stream over the impediments OF
rock and fallen trees to new and varied
music. When the writer Of the new poetry
dribbles. poses and offers US bits of broken
crockery as If he were lspidary presenting