Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-02-28
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES Z. TRAcEwELL.

his spirit Is drawn into the stream.
Is drop
commingled Herewith, taketh Of his
birthright therein
as vast an heritage as his young
baby hath
in the inimemorial riches Of NOR
tality."
Here the reader has the bards curl
ously wrought language, bizarre spell
ingS, individual punctuation. As for
commas, he despises them, as Whit
man came to do. It viii be remembered
that the early editions of Leaves Of
Grass" were peppered with commas
and other marks Of punctuation. The
last definitive edition had the bulk Of
them eliminated, so that often 1t Is
difhcult for a reader, to grasp the
meaning at first. Why do writer's come
to despise punctuation, except q bare
minimum? Because such marks SAVIOR
too much of the copy book and the
rules Of grammar. While they help, II
used properly, too concentrated usage
tends to spoil the now Of thought, a
very real thing, after all.
Bridges still considers the child:
And now full light of heart he hath
willingly pass'd out
thru the sword-gates of Eden into
the world beyond:
He will be child no more; In his
revel of knowledge
all the world is his own; all the
hope of mankind
Is sharpsn'd to a spearpoint in his
bright confidence,
as he rideth forth to do battle, a
Chevalier
in the joyous travail Of the everlast-
ing dawn"
This is a wonderful picture Of child
hood and early manhood, put into en-
during language, placing every youth
IN the guise of brave Chevalier, rid
ing forth to battle, "in the Joyous ira
vail of the everlasting dawn" Much
has hitherto been written of the ever
lasting home, the sure end of all, van
tty of vanity, but no writer in our gen.
Grafton has arisen to sing so surely of
the beauty of the everlasting dawn of
this curious life Of which we form q
part.
An intriguing thing about this poem,
curious because it Is so up-to-date.
yet so medieval in tone, Is the sure
footednesS, the determination Of the
poet to say what he wants to say in
the way he wants to say 1t.
1IlC IlOJG Oh tne VeXt,
supplied on a separate sheet with the
volume (Which, by the way, in the or
binary edition is a beautiful example
Of the printers and binders art), says
with resignation:
THE slight approach to a simplified
spelling in this book Is copied from the
authors MS, which the printer was
instructed to follow"
Not only printers have q hard time
with it; the average poetry lover, too,
perhaps viii wish that the poet laureate
had not been quite so young, up-and-
coming in his spelling. phraseology, etc.
But that is not the point. The point
Is, we believe, that here we have the
startling sight Of man writing as he
wants to write-and getting away with
it, as the phrase has it. As a matter
OF fact, DR.. Bridges uses several slang
phrases without quotation marks. He
writes as he wants to, and, what is
more, gets 1t printed cas- IS" What
the reader thinks of It does not count,
one way or the other; what the poet
thought, wrote. wanted-that alone
counts.
We particularly like his description
Of the modern investigations into sun
light:
Powers unseen and unknown are
the fountains of life:
no animal but kenneth that sunlight
is warm;
no dog but shifteth posture with the
shifting shade
reasonably as we: but man maketlh
dial for IL
to lneasur his day, and by his abstract
intellect
hath taken it for the source Of very
cause OF life;
then by science unraveling its phys
ical rays
he hath separated some. and found
some properties;
but OF the whole he knc eth that his
analysis
hath not approached the secret Of
their living power"