inative poet. absolute bent for letters, and a passion for the beautiful resembling that of Poe. His knowledge of English literature, old and new, early became so valuable that his younger associates, drawn to him by admiration of his poetry, never failed to profit by his learning and suggestions. His life has been peculiarly that of a writer, with its changes and pleasurable pains, and is marked by independence, sensitiveness, devotion to his calling, and pride in the city with whose literary growth and labor he is identified. The characteristics of Stoddard's verse are affluence, sincere feeling, strength, a manner unmistakably his own, An imag very delicate fancy, and, above all, an imagination at times exceeded by that of no other American poet. This last quality pervades his ambitious pieces, and at times breaks out suddenly in the minor verse through which he is best known. The exigencies of his profession have too constantly drawn upon his resources; the bulk of his miscellaneous verse is large, and to this is somewhat due its unevenness. No poet is more unequal; few have more plainly failed now and then. On the other hand, few have reached a higher tone, and a selection could be made from his poems upon which to base a lasting reputation. His blank-"The Fisher and Charon," "The Dead Master," and verse, lyrthe "Hymn to the Sea," are noble pieces of English ics, etc. blank verse, the secret of whose measure is given only to the elect; one is impressed by the art, the thought, the imagination, which sustain these poems, and the Shakespeare and Lincoln odes. Stoddard's abundant songs and lyrics are always on the wing and known at first sight, a skylark brood whose notes are rich with feeling. The sweet and direct method of The King's Bell placed him high in the ranks of writers of narrative verse. Among poets SAXE. LELAND. - BUTLER. 59 equal to him in years, he is, perhaps, the foremost of the artistic or cosmopolitan group. in satire and Jeux Leland: Fields: If I cared to give, in detail, various by-road illus- American trations of the American spirit, I could cite many stances where the brooding humor, the quaintness d'Esprit. and frankness, the pluck and fun and carelessness, of John Godfrey Saxe: our new people long since cropped out in rhyme. 1816These characteristics give life to the wise and witty Charles purpose of Holmes's and Lowell's satires, and to the Godfrey verses of Saxe, Leland, Fields, and Butler. We have 1824their continuance and diversity in the clever, off-hand James fantasies of younger men. There is no lack of dia- Thomas lect, bric-a-brac, and society verse. Some of our young 1816-81. Bohemians all at play, twenty years ago, - of whom William George Arnold was American by birth, as were Halpine and O'Brien by adoption, while not without 1825their earnest moods, did rollicking work of this kind, (See Chap. XII.) and in Arnold's case it seemed to his friends but an offshoot of the better work he had it in him to do. The Dean among our writers of poems for occasions Holmes. is unquestionably Dr. Holmes, by virtue of his apt response to the instant call, and of the wit, wisdom, conviction, and the scholarly polish that relegate his lightest productions to the select domain of art. Allen Butler: To Whitman a chapter will be given, and is needed Whitman. for the fair consideration of his traits and attitude. He represents, first of all, his own personality; secondly, the conflict with aristocracy and formalism. Against the latter he early took the position of an iconoclast, avowing that the time had come in which to create an American art by rejection of all forms, irrespective of their natural basis, which had come to us from the past. In their stead he proffered a form of his own. If I rightly understand the meaning of one or two recent papers by Mr. Whitman, his ex home school, thus having existed, should be valued at its worth. See "No. treme views, in deprecation of what is and anticipation of what is to be, are now somewhat tempered by years and experience. He is a man of striking physical and mental qualities, and excels most writers in personal influence, tact, and adroitness as a man of the world. He is an avowed champion of democracy, and accepted as such by the refined classes at home and abroad. I shall refer to his minute knowledge and healthy treatment of the American landscape, of the phases and products of outdoor Nature, for in this respect his most fragmentary pieces show the handicraft of an artist and poet. We need not continue farther the analysis suggested A genuine in the previous chapter. I have not tried to make a rigid classification of all who have borne a part in the rise of a home-school, but to observe the general groups of which some of our elder poets may be called the leaders, and the condition and sentiment by which their work has been affected. Enough has been said, I think, to justify the assertion that such a school already has had a career which Americans should be swift to recognize and slow to undervalue. One "of your own poets" has taken a different view, declaring that a barren void exists, that our poetry Fan. 1881. has been marked by an absence of patriotism, and that it has shown brain and no soul. A more incorrect or wilfully pessimistic statement never was made. In every department of art, times of energy are divided by times of calm. The first course is run, and there is a temporary halt, so far as poetry is concerned. The imaginative element in our literature is active as ever, but in other directions. Meantime, we have singers in their prime, resting their voices for the moment, and others whose fresh notes will soon be more definitely heard. Both these classes view": The first course ended. THE WRITER'S PROVINCE. them 61 ter XII.) will come within our review. The younger poets, (See Chap upon whom the future depends, must prove selves well endowed, if they are to succeed to the laurels of those who, blessed with years and honors, have held the affection of life-long readers scattered far and wide. It is of those elders only, the representative founders of our school, that I have undertaken to write at any length. To pass critical judgments upon those of my own, or a younger, generation is beyond my province. The time will come when some of them will in turn occupy the high places, and furnish typical illustrations of poetry and the poetic life. In that near future there will not be wanting critics to measure their works, nor hands to award the recompense that is due to them who add to the sum of human pleasure by their ministry of song. Impressive feeling excited by the poet's death. Born in ton, Mass., W CHAPTER III. WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. I. HEN Bryant died, in the flowery season that had inspired his sweetest lyric, the general pause and hush were singularly impressive. To the death of no other American, for a long time before and after, could be applied so aptly that Indian metaphor of the sound of the fall of a great oak in the forest. The feeling was not one of unexpectedness, although his old age was free from decrepitude, - as if some deity kinder than Aurora had given him immortality without decay; not one of sorrow, for he lived beyond the usual limit of life; not that which we have when some man of office, rank, entanglement in great affairs, suddenly passes away. Yet the station of "the father of American song" was unique, and his loss was something strange and positive. He stood alone, in certain respects, an incomparable figure. He had become not only a representative citizen, journalist, poet, but the serene, transfigured ideal of a good and venerable man. As a writer he had been before the public from a Cumming date near the beginning of the century, and so changeless through all its changes that his critics, in estimating the poet just dead, really were judging the poet of fifty years before, instead of guessing at the Νου. 3η 1794. |