Year: 1878

from "Barca's desert sands to the "con-
tinuous woods where rolls the Oregon,
and all the rules of rhetoric and mathe-
matics and all the taste of the heart ask
ed of the composer faithful adherence
to the theme. The marvel is that being
! only youth of eighteen, the poet found
the discrimination that could detect and
the courage that could reject all that e0-
traneous matter which must have clam
ored not little for admission. But the
youth held his soul by a firm rein and
gave mankind the most impressive medi-
tation on death that exists in all litera-
ture. 'Thanatopsis" is a picture of man S
mortality, just as the apollo" is the
ideal of mans beauty or as Home, Sweet
Home" is an expression Of mans domes,
tic ties


Nor did Bryant harm in the least the
Christian teaching; for, if one would es-
innate rightly the doctrine of second
life, he must first permit some gifted one
to paint for him the shadow of death,
that by contrast Immortality may stand
forth in more powerful light. The author
of "Thanatopsis'' becomes the companion
of the author of the Letter to the Co.
rinthians; for the one fills the eyes with
tears and makes the soul ready for those
words of the other: "In Christ shall all
be made alive" After Bryant is read
Paul becomes divine consolation.


1t was not rhetoric or logic which COM
planned at the paganism of the great po-
EN-. 1t was only that Christian preiu-
dice and semi fanaticism which once de-
manded that even the sports of children
should be evangelical and that the cloth
ing of adults should be cut out in the
light of prophecy. When poets wrote or
orators spoke, it was expected of them
that they would not close without paying
some compliment to the Christian relig-
ion. The preachers put into each dis
course the distinguishing dogmas of their
schools. But this custom did not corrupt
the method of Gray in his "Elegy," nor
Bryant in his "Thanatopsis," nor Read in
his CLOSING Scene" These are perhaps
the three greatest minor poems in the
English language, and much of this i'm
mortal power comes from the fact that
each line of each poem points to the one
sentiment that fills the bosom of the
writer. The thought in each of these
works of art builds up like the massive
argument of Webster. Each poem con-
tains about hundred lines and each line
is an appeal to the readers soul. There
is no discordant voice. With Bryant we
walk into the streets of mighty past,
where the once happy people lie in their
final sleep and where the noise of the
worlds work is hushed with Gray we
sit down in a simple country churchyard
and forget the mighty world, to weep
over village beneath the grass with
Read, in his CLOSING Scene" we mark
the aged mother, who had outlived her
patriotic sons, follow at last to the rest
under the daisies:


"At last the thread was snapped, her head was


Life dropped the distaff through his hands Sc


rene,


And loving neighDOrs smoOthed her careful


While Death and Winter closed the autumn


Scene."


The absence of the Christian theology
from these three poems is caused not by
the heathenism of the writers; but by
their faithfulness to their duty. When
Bryant wrote his thoughts about the
Waterfowl" he was not pagan. When
Grays theme led him near Christianity,
he won the name of being an opponent of
Rousseau and violent enemy of athe-
lists" When Read wrote 1.-THE Way" he
brought in elegantly the modern type of
religion:


mo answer wheresoe'er roam,


From skies afar no guiding ray;


But hark the voice of Christ says: Come,


Arise, l am the way"


The explanation of the quality of these
three imperishable meditations, that alb
sence of theology, may be all found in
the fact that the minds that composed
them could find great themes, and could
stand faithfully by them through good or
i'll report. The witty daily press express
es the sentiments of many when it says:
LET us have some more pagan poems"