Evening star., 1926-04-10

to get away from the rough (neces-
| sarily so) colonial life, and that poetry
was regarded as the quintessence OF
culture.
| Accordingly, more poetry was pub
lished and read than any other form
! of composition. Every one wrote
| poems, especially the ladies', who
came out on the title pages with the
title Mrs" No one, was ashamed OF
being married then.
x y i y
Poe's opinion of Carlyle, carried as
an aside in one of his reviews, is IN
teresting:
| Either a man intends to be under
stood, or he does not" he says. III he
write a book which he intends not TO
be understood we shall be very happy
| indeed not to understand it: but If he
write a book which he means to be
understood. and in this book, be at all
possible pains to prevent us from un-
derStanding it, we can only say that
| he is an asS--and this. to be brlef, is
our private opinion of Mr.. Carlyle,
which we now take the liberty of
making public"
They were frank in those days.
| Are not books made. as we'll as
razors, to SELF" Poe asks, III one of
! those old reviews, and the question
| stands today.
| In a criticism of George p. Morris,
| Poe made the statement: For my own
part, l would much rather have writ
| ten the best song of nation than its
noblest epic
!. In his review of THE Hawks of
| Hawk Hollow he has pertinent
sugg concerning flip" writer's
| He speaks of Treating the whole mar
rative in a jocular manner throughout
dnasmuch as 10 say, i know l am
writing nonsense. but then YOU must
| excuse me tor the very reason that
/ know it.1'
Surely the above applies TO many
| writer's of today, who either con
sciously or unconSciously beilttle the
great art in which each man who
handles pen has his part. however
humble.
X j: X \
Most readers of today will share
Poe's opinion of Lowell's "Fable for
Critics" and Longfellow's play, The
Spanish Student
AS to the versitication OF the for
mer, Poe said 1T might have been
better--but we are quite sure that ii
could not have been worse" OF the
other he declared: "A man of true
genius (and such Mr.. l.. unqueStion'
ably isy has no business with these
hybrid and paradoXical compositions
| Let II poem he Il poem only; let a
play be a play. and nothing more.
As for The Spanish Student. its
theme is unoriginal; its incidents are
| antique; it's plot is no plot; its char
| acters have no character. in short, II
! is little better than q play upon words
To style it IA play at al.
In reviewing COoper's novel tsel'
dom read today Poe gave some OBJ
| servations still applicable to novel
writing:
There are two great classes OF
| fiction--a popular and widely circu-
lated class, read with pleasure, but
| without admiration, in which the au-
| thor is lost or forgotten; or remenn-
! bered. if at all, with something very
nearly akin TO contempt; and then. d
class not SO popular, nor SO widely
| diffused in which. at every para
graph. arises a distinctive and highly
/ pleasiireable interest, SpringinS from
/ our appreciation of the skill
| employed or the genius evinced in
! the composition. After perusal of the
! one class. we think solely of the book
after reading the other. chiefly of the
author. The former class leads 10
popularity-the latter TO fame.