Evening star., 1924-09-08
THIS AND THAT
BY g. e. TRACEWELL.

boy, Dy NatHaNa crane, anu pup
lished by Thomas Seltzer, New York.
Here is some astonishingly fine
verse, all the better for having been
written by an 11-year-old child.
am one who has no patience with
the idea that children cannot think
as deeply as their elders. While
knowledge is a growth, brain power
is an Inheritance. You either have
it or you have not. The ability to
write is in one, or it is not. Much
may be done by cultivation, but the
divine spark" cannot be coaxed.
Children often have a depth OF
feeling and insight into the nature
OF things that men and women often
are unwii.ing to credit them with,
in the pride of maturity and inteiiec-
tuality. Little ones often see more,
and know more, than their bright
elders, especially when it is taken
into Iteration that many fathers
and mothers have never developed
mentally a day since the age OF Is.
William Cullen Bryant wrote his
"Thanatopsis" when he was IL.
Alexander Pope turned out a fine
philosophical poem on the blessings
of poverty when he was but OF
tender age-10, l think.
The Brooklyn girl. whose book OF
verse Is delighting poetry lovers
here and throughout the land, is the
latest of the bright ones, If not the
youngest of the seers." Unlike the
English child who wrote-or Is sup
posed to have wrtten-the famous
Little Visitors" Nathalia Crane
gives promise of even greater things
The liking for poetry, too, is some
thing that is either in you or not
in you. The schools do the best they
can to cultivate this taste. Teachers
heroicly cram "Hiawatha" and The
Illiad" down the throats Of incipient
bricklayers, in the sacred name of
education, and beat out the ryhthms
Of Walter Soctt's Lady Of the Lake"
and "Marmion" before boys and girls
who later will take to the fox-trot
in preference.
A better method, one which would
get better results because 1t would
not disgust SO many children with
poetry, would be to tell school chill
dren about the poets, make their
poetry available, and then let the
children take to them or not, just
as they chose. When one thinks of
the children who were satiated with
Popes brilliant but flourishing
translation of the Illaid, or forced to
read Dickens Tale of Two Cities"
when they were not equal to 1t. he
feels like exclaiming, "Oh, English
Literature, what crimes are commit
ted in thy name,"
The instructive poetry lover, then,
will be attracted by the slender VOL
ume under the rather dubious title,
The Janitors Boy" Such a one
will not open to the first genuine
poem in the book. THE Vestal," read
with a frown until he comes to the
i'm no rrin IaI ie;o
claim, What does that mean?'
Such is the invariable exclamation
of one who does not care for poetry.
What does it mean?" True poets
have been messed over so by scores of
well-m Gaming persons, who have got
the idea, somehow or other, that to
like poetry is a sign of culture, and
so form Browning Clubs" and what
not to delve into the meaning" of
poet
If you instinctively ask yourself,
What does this mean% when you
read verse. know that you are by ma
ture not poetry lover. You might
as well close the volume and go back
to golf. or the sporting page, or Con-
rad, or your automobile. or gardening,
or anything else in the world that
men and women do. Poetry is not
for you.
This introduction is necessary in
considering THE Janitor's Boy" for
some of its verse, quite frankly
would be hard put to it to offer any
answer at all to that terrible ques-
ton, What does it mean?"
One of the charms of true poetry
is that the meaning is often nothing,
the intent everything. If poem puts
in beautiful words thought, a feel
ing and does it in a way to delight,
its mission is fulfilled. Poetry, ever
since the days of Homer, has had
one mission-to entertain If, at the
same time, it states something in an
unforgettable way, with true music
ing, 1t is real poetry.
That is what Miss Crane has done
in the poem Tomorrow"
The sun shall shine In ages yet to be,
The musing moon illumine pastures dim.
And afterward a new nativity
For all who slept the dreamless interim.
The starry brocade of the summer night
Is linked to us as part OF our estate;
And every bee that wings its sidelong flight
Assurance Of q sweeter, fairer fate.
The hlaDoned hummins- bird hath made it
1t seeks r,vines where wildinss wreathe
each wall;
By rainbows DER rambling waterfall.
When you return. the youngest of the seers.
Released from fetters Of ancestral pose.
There will be beauty waiting down the
years
ReYisions Of the ruby and the rose.
There are unforgettable phrases
there. Need we be astonished that
a mere baby in literature could turn
out such a line as that third from the
last, Released from fetters of an
cestr; pose? Certainly she refers to
the old, old instincts, customs, habits
that tie the hands and brains of men!
In the new day, which is the hope
and faith of Christian peoples,
There will be beauty waiting down
the years." new changes rung by the
to US in the ruby and the rose.
Addison. in his Cato" said the same
thing, but not as we'll:
The stars shall fade away, the sun himself
Grow dim with age, and nature sink in years,
But thou shalt flourish in immortal youth.
Unhurt amidst the wars Of elements,
The wrecks Of matter and the crash OF worlds.
It takes a true poet to handle so
tastefully and musically the theme of
her '"The Vestal," telling of a young
lady who was afraid of colors barri-
cading her eyes against the glorious
hues of this world, until at last she
was led to see the truth.
Then the gates were opened;
Miracles were seen:
That instructed damsel
Donned a gown of green,
Wore 1t in q churchyard,
All arrayed with care;
And q painted rainbow
Shone above her there.
The young poets first book really
begins on page 80 with this poem.
Those previous are amusing examples
Of a clever chi1d's verse. The real
poafvv is in tho remainder of the