Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-09-27
THE LIBRARY TABLE
BY the Booklouer

OJ StS DOOhtOUeB 1
Pope, the abused the DETAINED, the
misunderstood has at last found q de-
voted, almost uncritical, champion in
Edith Sitwell who has written his biog-
raphy in Alexander Pope" In SYM
pathizing with Pope on account of his
/ physical deformity and weakness, and in
rather extravagantly praising his
formal, pedantic verse, she has found
it necessary to belittle and slur other
poets, even those Of another era, who
have been generally considered to have
| finer poetic inspiration than Pope. She
does, 1t Is true, admit the greatness
Of Shakespeare, Milton, Shelley and
! Keats. Matthew Arnold comes in for
unusual scorn, probably because he was
1 critic of poetry as well as poet This
! general blighting and whitening of the
| poetic taste is the result of the public
mind having been overshadowed by
such Aberdeen-granite tombs and
monuments as Matthew Arnold, Is the
| result also OF the substitution of scholar
for poet, of school inspector for artist"
! Again she speaks of Matthew Arnolds
chilblained mittened musings" Words
worth is pushed into q mediocre place
| not usually assigned to him by thought
| full critics. THE poetry of today has
| been much debased by the Wordsworth
| ian ideals of those verSifiers, who were
| fashionable from 1900 until about five
| years ago, and who are, indeed, still
read in certain quarters. To these men,
rhetoric and Journalism were abhor-
rent, partly, no doubt. because to man.
| age either quality in verse the writer
must possess technical capability."
4 X X
Miss Sitwell's eulogizing Of Pope is
| unlimited. Perhaps she is special
| pleader because she is writing his biog-
raphy; perhaps she might do as much
for any other poet whose biography she
undertook. ''The reputation Of Pope is
safe among the poets OF this time; but
it is a fact. also, that large section
of the public has not yet recovered
from the cold, damp mossinsss that has
| blighted the public taste for the last
| 40, so or even so years; and to these
| people, Pope is not one of the great
est of our poets one of the most Iowa
BILE of men, but a man who was de-
formed in spirit as In body. How false
| this estimate has been, shall hope to
| show" She speaks also of 1.-The great
ness the fire, the supreme music and
| variation of the poems of Alexander
Pope" OF his character she says: IT
| do not know why the unhappy Pope's
| underlying beauty of character and
kindness have not been more COM
mented upon, since his lifes record Is
one of loyalty to his friends, unchang-
ing love where that love was not be-
! trayed, financial generosity, and, where
that generosity was extended, the most
| extraordinary delcacy and kindness
Was this man filled with nothing but
hatred and malice? His letters to his
/ friends are among the most touching
letters that any great man has writ
4 ten; his devotion to his parents and
to his old nurse was beautiful and flaw
less; 1t lasted through their lives and
| after their deaths, unchanged and UNI
/ olmmed." The one fault which Miss
Sitwell admits in Pope is that he suf-
fered from a constitutional inhibition
! against speaking the truth, save on
I, those occasions when, If we except the
esthetic point of view, the truth would
have been better left unspoken" But
even in this fault she is sympathetic,
Tor she says: But have so often found
both these faults in myself that I do
not dare to blame them; it is no doubt
otherwise with some of his biographers,
and they feel they have right to do
| So" Perhaps on the whole this
biography of Miss Sitwell was needed
to give US an enthusiastically sympa-
thetic view of the man who has so often
been represented as the bitter, ma
hcious, petty little Wasp Of Twicken-
ham,"
Miss sitwelPs account and interpre-
tatton OF the friendship between Pope
and Dean Swift form one of the most
interesting parts of her biography.
Both men were obviously selfish, both
were morbid, both were in abnormal
states of health. Swift was so deaf
i that he could hear only those who
shouted at him; Pope's voice was So
weak that he was unable to make Swift
hear. Each had peculiarities and &C.
him to live alone. ,Undeniably, they
did not get along we'll together and
| liked each other better when they were
apart; yet their friendship continued
unbroken and was marked by much
generosity on each side. Pope even
invited Swift to give up his lonely
home in ireland, give his money to
the poor there. and come to live with
him at his expense at Twickenham.
Adverse critics have sneeringiy held
that Pope felt perfectly safe, as he knew
that Swift would never give up his
position as dean of ST. Patrick's, Dub
! lin. 1t also has been said that when
| the dean invited Pope to visit him In
Ireland he, knew that his friends deli
cate health would certainly prevent his
crossing the rough Irish Sea- 1t seems
to have been a friendship with quail
/ fications Probably most friendships
are. When Swift visited at Twicken-
/ ham he was annoyed by the elaborate
| ciyilitieS" of Pope, but Pope was, in
turn. annoyed by Swift's habit Of
walking up and down his room, like
a Gagged beast, for hours at stretch"
| Swift was tramplike in his habits, loved
4 disorder and hated social restraint;
! Pope was meticulouS and fidgety and
''frail as q moth" The toy OF. the
friendship consisted chiefly in letter.
/ writing - Z
X 4 4 -.
4 y The idea of the union of the Ameri-
can Colonies into single Nation was
not that of single man or of a sudden
happening. Many leaders in the Col
onieS contributed to the first steps
toward nationality, and there were
many of those steps before the Union
emerged. Allan L. Benson. in his
Daniel Webster" sees Webster as the
chief workman of the completed Union
after the first military stage was past.
He recognizes the important part of
John Marshsll. but says that he ac-
cepted the arguments of Webster and
based his decisions on them. The later
years of his life were spent in fostering
the idea of the Union, threatened by
the growing friction over. slavery
Wherever he went that was the bur-
den of his message--the Union! With
| out question, Webster drove the idea of