Evening star., 1925-03-07
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

+, Just as / was getting ready to
write an article about Longfellow,
| along comes William Tipton Talbott
with letter in which he ranks Gun
| great bard side by side with Tenny-
| son
Nr, I'aibott says. In q note. that he
! Is pleased like others that. in this
day of veIs libre, jazz, sdlac!ous bunk,
| Psyche Ann Alley Sis and sCared-o n
| moralists, you dare to be Il Daniel ara
stand up in the lions den TO hold fast
to things of good repute in the mid
Victorian era"
OF Henry wadsworth Longfeiiow,
whose poetry the bright boys have
been pleased to label "sugary" of re-
| cent years, Mr.. Talbot writes
II was much pleased by your state
ment in Tho Star OF February 81 that
you are not sure but that Longfellow
should occupy the homer position in
| the center of your Literary Square
! 1t would please me better if you were
sure.
II stand Longfellow beside Tenny-
| son s a poet and am not sure which
is the greater. In clearness and force
| fulness / think he equals Tennyaon,
and In tenderness, as the high priest
of the temple of the SOUL eXcels him.
But that Is not exactly what | sat
| tum that Longfellow is 'sugary,' !
would edge In with quotation rom
| Paul Revere's Ride-which Is the
greatest song of a ride in the English
| language.
| 'It is gr.at because OF The master =
full simplicity of its lines. The Ride
| From Client to AK 'Sheridans Ride,
Tam o. Snanter,' John Gilpin' Kit
Carsons Ride do not by several
lengths approach it, and, speaking OF
Kit Carson, why not include Joaquin
| Miller among the truly American
poets In your Literary Square?"
At this point let me interrupt the
| letter long enough TO say that James
Whitcomb Riley also ought 20 go into
Literary Square. and perhaps Eugene
Field, the latter for Little Boy Blue,
| IL for nothing more.
Mr.. Talbot again: "Longfellow,
| think, is so often referred to as lack
| ing masculine quality because the
! public knows him chiefly through the
| Psalm of Life and similar pieces A
| fact which nobody seems to consider
| is that Longfellow was u versatile
We rsifier.
There is d wide and varied range
of style and theme in a group includ
ing such pieces as The Beleaguerec
City Excelsior The Children's
Hour The Skeleton in Armor,' The
Arsenal at Springfield Nuremberg
The Birds of Killingworth, 'Evange-
| line and Miles Standish' and 'Hia-
watha.'
In fact. Longfellow's lyrical life
| may be divided into three periods
the early Voices of the Night period
the 'Belfry of Bruges' period and the
Tales OF Wayside Inn period.
! I'm choosing a sample TO illustrate
Longfellow's strength in simplicity
i hesitate between that selected ano
the once hackneyed passage from
The Building of the Ship commenc-
ing. Thou. too. sail on, oh, Ship oi
State. But as the consummate mode
of tale in verse, Paul Revere's Ride
is nothing else except, and here is its
lofty finish:
And so through the night rode Paul Revere;
And SO through the night went his cry OF
To every Middlesex village and farm
cry of defiance and not of fear.
A voice IN the darkness knock st the door
And a word that shall echo forevermore,
For. borne on the nightwind Of the past
Through all our history. 10 the last,
In the hour of peril and darkness and need,
The people will waken and listen to hear
The hurrying hoof beats Of that steed,
And the midnight message of Paul Revere.
Let me add that the claim that
Longfellow Is 'sugary' itself sounds
sanded-sugary in the reading of lines
like these. and in passing let me
likewise remark that the literary
puzzle of my young life-my second
childhood, that is to say-is to un :
derstand how it is that American
critics let their English brethren. un-
answered, damn American poetry