Fl 9
:i.
-
+r
:''''tifuit:_.:pq-. - 3011.tu.pt., - L_
. .
DeliTered 'peforO letio - " Union Firo, Cirihrtnyrof
,
by Prof. - 11zumAN, 31. JOHNSON
. .
MR:PREBiiT34T.
I flatter -myself- that ,m_selepting _a theme
purely . lif-40-fif-a•----the--,present • occasion, I
have consulted the taste of my nudi4nce. - 1
have, indeed,heen advised otherwise. But I.
cannot persuade myself that, in a communitY
not a little distinguished for, its general re
finement_ and cultarer whieh has the honor
of cherishing in its midst, a literary_ Institu-•
-Con which dates with, the years of the Eie
'public, an evening", assemblage shbuld
nand
for its seleetest intellectual recreations
that class of topics—exclusivily—which
- baptize practicitir only by :virtue of their.
remove_ ram
rOber anticipate that eacL hearer
_will'elaim_
that full knowledge. and interest in a matter
of polite literature, that he is ready, without
misgiving oi hesitation, to pronounce on the
critic:. 'ln Order, therefore, that we come to
happy accord,- let us inquire, what...grounds
we can find for a common judiment.
are seen to out such unpreceuent cap: ..
instance—tliercia Tennyaoneur__Poiit Lan ;
reate, Tennyeon has written versos
be'cherished in mevhoria while- hutrian sympa
thies continue what they are. Pity lie had not
known the happy hour to stay the reed 1..,, , 8ut
now, whiles that the good queen to whom he is
laureate and her whilom special constable,
-arehob-a•nobbing-civer a well-done '.Turkey;_
• and, seeing that, the railway acrosa• the con•
tiuent and-the -steamers-down -the...Danube
have sh o rten:ed_th ro ata_tom uAe-lan t i
. Tennyson, tho laureate, would 'fain take an:"
other - sniff of the Parnassean exhilaration', and
forthwith, he sings us a song of the veriest"
---n!dfidlin that -1 vef fell from read .poet's•brains.
And then. there's Bailey, the English Goethe
--unquesti.ned_i_u his inunertality, had he h'ut
written once .nnd ceased. Then .would 'after
ages, when they would. instance the-sublime .
Thus wise makes the poem' its ,bow to_ the
image of a great intellect struggling. With the
great world'aa now to this lesser.
- despair of - a-false position--for - lack•of-the-re....
Strange - eubject enough ! and yet, I Carl ligions idea, _have pronounced indifferently,
assure you, destined to became popular; by- „ •
r cattle or Faustus. • But he too must essay
cause, purely native American, al'`
anew,weavingus sentences winding, all the
readmpular ; r enjoying
vvny frc7m Parnattanihomeward and back again
popillar -favor, bt popular
to limbo •witheut. once discoverin the idea
interest. No livit iediscovering
they set out after. ~Arid. not sentences only,
Our teeming presi within the century that has .
but words blade he - after a fashionl'of his own.
created so great a--fieneation,-unless_ perhaps _
Erom his perch untie peartif Trirnassuti,ltfok - - -
we exeept" Uncle Tom's__Cabin" or—the
ing down'oi the plains once vocal-with-the
President's Message. Macauley's
• songs ofTion and Alcaeas, - of Sappho and An!
a wonder to `some ; but men read_ Macituley.!o. 4 .
.r • • screen, he must have recalled that the Greek
history just as they read essays ; aild they
was a . - dead language, and fancied himself en
titlited about It just as they tallieirabout his
titled totee spoils. Returning by Rome, he
essays. Fine - sentences ,! -they 13ny ; 4eautiful
found another dead language, andpwept - into -
Reriods 1 ao-harnaonionsly „ . ..reunded,for___so
ti: J - laialvtillet such fragments as - lie - conitzather; -
licely petal:di But when tuquiirktl of as
Thence - by , way Ot ratner.hunt, be apiiierifteed
the facts, they shake their head's: But'
himself eci.the art'Of patching together crook=
watha is read, and discussed,. and recittad,and
ed-jOinted vocibles in modes unprecedented:
-;'imitatedrand-liarodied, _and._lnirlesque, -and
._Anffsn he gathers his which like the
Fab an d- condemned, and
. s e_etery_w_h ern - itstorees of Solomon's - Templehnd - sound-en ough .fir s ids no rest. And I have been credibly in
hammer, before they were brought te Atm Holy
formed that men have forgotten,aye and ladies
City. And thus, what with interminable Ben
ton; to exobange sentiments on the weather
• tenets unmeaning ticiff., unpronounceable ad
till -they hid first ascertained each other 8 - •
yeotiv,es that dgfy elassi cation, his genius has
stand point in regard to Hiawatha. The spirit . . •
labored with a now pr digy and be christens
of this nondescript, has invaded the seats. of
• the bantling—a poem, - It calls itself,,b,y.,hap
learningi-and-'-ousted_the_m.aties___of the old
py
buried poets from theii long. repose, where
Longfellow, stands forthUninnouticed;beartug
with the buried ages they had contemplated
his offering to the Heliconiun fount, __ ' ,_ The
the , L monument= exegi," - which they. had.
world is- surprised=7w.e may, -alranstritay as,
inscribed for themselves; and starting into
tounded—and and doubly so ;—first at the
nevi life as by a veritable metempsychosis,
fact; second, at the form of the Mot:
they have forsaken their own old and standard
• First we say, at the fact. .Thnt the last half of '
strains, .and by the magic touch of sophoo
mthe nineteenth century, all unpootic as we must
reap genius, lo l confess it to be, should sn early have given us
Übe third poetic instalment—before the_ first'
hoptad was comploted,—before even tha-Ens
/_,tern,wheoethe Nobraaka question,.;was set ; .
tled,=was more than we had a right to
peat.. But here it is. We had not had time to
digest - Maud and Mystic, before _we are - invi
ted to a dish of succotesh. 'Besides, the first
two, had notoriously filled. •That a third'
'should venture so close on their track seemed
preposterous. The first two . bad fotindered
hopelessly; dashed, the one on' Charybdis,
Abe other engulfed in the, • maw ..-of Scylla.
'That a third should tempt tee strait withont
waiting a token of propitimis heavens savored
alittle of inipiety. But seeniir the; ;le; ni Cff
Ole facts...Thiberalded alto little'lintikie before
- us, without 'preface or. fureword, modestly
waiting what the world will• day to It. "-That
it'wati intended for Poetry is nvident from its
short lines and its fair .and ample margins,.
faintly suggesting the comparison which some
one has made with more conceit than,wit of
rivuleed verse meandering through broad
prariee of margin." And then the_ lines ire
so eatlyaigistered on the left, and so ragged
i the outline on the right. Sur; index-of po
•etry.! And to give the,last and .decisive test;
the lines all begin with capitals: r •
We have a poem then. The world sits
down -to read: But what a hop skiP•and;jump
sort of measure The world loses its gravity.
The world explodes InMerriment ; _and criti
cism; otherwise so graveand carping, evapo
rates k in burlesque imitation: Take the follow-
ing sea speohnen.,.:in'ilnitephititicated
ier would dtisCribe a fr . 4ll'et in the'Ohio-:- 1 4,tlin
str\ara of silvery waters," eH the natives,
phoneously called it, and liatreneh in imita
tion—"La toile Itivere such a freshet
at :frequently occur in thane- western .esters
bearing . damage 4 to „the ,merohandise piled
above the wharves endto-the rats that burrow
• -
114AwkniA I—Now it, is"barely possiblelliere
--May-he some.in - this audimme who have , not:
let made acquaintance with the atrenge;
name I have :named:" Peitiiiiii — therofure --- 1
ought to spy:— • " • • •
Do you ask me what my theme Is;
• What the subject of my lecture;
IXould..nnswer, I should tell you;
:rpoetn. by. Longfellow,
'Tie a poem of queer metre,
• 'Tis eutaled Hiawatha. • .
Lyric Itomce, spooking English,
Lyric Itoraco, in translation,
Socks the tlialvatbon Indsure.
And.fie various are the not that vspond
to this sweep of the•haid — o lawatlia, they
produce n very chivarari. In the midst of
!Inch diversity, then, is lt possible for us to
find a•common judgment ? Let us inquire.
he_true critieshpuld, establieh the true,cri
terion by which to try his sublect. The poet is
creator of, the spirit of the age..
lie accepts it as
are
ruler; sows own o
it; serves it. Vie are not therefore to judge
- ilicrpottry .. .of — this:age-by - that of -Ham_or
Charlemagne ;`of great Maoacnas or Chester-*
field: And t vvhatever we,inny ray of our-glori•
pus -uinetee rah century, in which we have such
a comfortable faith; - Nie cannot . claim for it
that its, highest merit is in its poetic wares.
.Iday be we are net courteous. to the muses,.
and the ay,enge,theinselves. Our Longfellow
inds'ed - Oin meraorates the faetrstrange„ as it
may seem,, i that_brave Aid Pegasus was actual
ly caught one cold evening . and put lii the.
` pound ap_fomewhore in a Yankee 'country,
. tillage; and there the poor beast — stook full
...belt the live-long night, look' gat the .80 *
,and, solemn moon thre4h the wooden bars of
hie Miserable - pen, : just , e4.stupid es if,some wag
had pinned extra,eare to hie pate. No wonder he.
iides them snub a raid, thwoor poets!, When
_be gets out ; and, tosses so `of then :sheer
'down the precipitous olifb3 of Parnassus, ca:-
-Mt. Blnno, or any other hill be May chance to
A be on. I can think of "but one citheiby,pOthe
sis to explain the sadlEitte into Which . are
fallen. • .
It is said that the oracle of the Delphian
Spollb-waa waThedl)3s, the
,kesue.,of an exhilar•
atng-garihailhe fissure of -ayock--eirnilar
- . .
_to ~that 'Which our. .Ptofessor oft chemistry
illustrate haw tho
A
offteurpr, tnity,,b.?_diersoyeik
the inhalation of Ohl gittliiitt: gage:tlie , Vyclija,
her inspitittiOn. have 'Win;
_-_diseavered_by_certalmiliepherds _who_obsepred
• that ever as thekrgoats - oanie upon: . a' certain
spot, they were siezedmith a midden frenzy,
___and_enuoixbitiange-intiOs_quite unlieo.oraing_
their gontships.. , Now, itis knoin, the oracle
is long ainae`-silent. -•-The-trade of- thefrythia
, i_is-gono. What has beectuii):'-0 . ; the; gas-?,
absence of that certaintif,which .'eeft•
be 1114 by geological. inspection, 1 venture the
suggestion, that, as the,. the' temple
'must have choked up the original 'orifioe,• and
thereby'foteed the said gas of inspiration into
-one%ftier duct, it may,. have found Li passag ,
brthe seams of the rocks laterally and thence
upward,following the bend'of the upheaval,
and that it finds its issue now from the Bunt:
mit illifikeof the moUntain.' - And ,
hence it is, the recent visitants to Parnassus
- ', - 40 . 4ii441,1-a 7- . 7 emilo):l - .
belles hem. Eiober fact enough ;;•bet not
ttb.sopek Or Hoosier. The. simple )vorqiffellhet, ,
.Nrarta'tliejmoie poetic and
uttoral,
MIV
ve not•wearyand I'l ell you
Tellyou; If you•are not 'We ,
Of-Lb e-mighty-li Igher--water •
I ... .lligher-witter swelling proudly,
Proudly, eiiolliug downihe •
On the white waves ho descended, , •
waie:
With him came the Whirliug eddies; •
• : Came with him Ker-chunk,the hig,stump;
• Catne•the.tolling loge, 0-wah-sis;
Ctithe the snags, the Jag-gemiag•gersi
Came Sca•wot,che.te, the drift-Wood;
Came Ice-rick-e•ty, thelenceralls; • '
Came the corn:Stalks, came.thelpark-wockl:
. :Came aldtaiing mass of phindir -
~„
* .* • * • *
I:=
What alnightk rite& of watorer . ...
-What an.army of destruction,
Otiming down in wrath and fury,
Comi .; down the handsome Aver,
Corning.dairdwith,llighorTator.
'Filled with raging, pied with fury,
qoicptofighi.thebig rats, •
To o'erlthelm the akAilhing'whart.rate."
ME
'pnifioge is selected from a seng
composed of • over 'five hundred such verses;
and it is but a spechnen of five hundred other
•suthillucubrations suddenly flooding the.world
with-their lightCp-,,offipring Of_genius famed
and unfatned, frOm PU . nch down to the adver
-tiser of.shoe-'-blacltniug-and..magnetiefpillo. -
I _ Noir ludricrous - as illl, - thie stuff is,• ,it involves
a serious question. Shall burlesqlio settle a
mutter of criticism? Shall laughter loving
Jonathaiissinother poetie merit . and just - fanie,
I under heops of ridieule? :Or is there no Iller•
it' discernable in-our subject? US inquire.
Soberlyit - hat iS Hiawatha no a poem ? Had
it the essential qufilities of a-true poem, or is
it ariham, or a force? This inTolves the
. pre7
liminary inquiry —What - are the essehtinj
true poem? -IYe say a poein x nufst
have two tbings;—first a subject ; second
fortn.. ,
First then, n ea* t., We claim this as the,
firi3t easential; itiCve — known but one slice-else
ful kat:lnce, in contravention of . this rule.—
That is the famous epic which says -
31arched up the hill andAheii marched duw u again
'Now; a-King of Spain : may ho as, noble• a
grandee•es any. rin Ilia realm ;' but .L are?,_a_
King of Spain is nnt subject for an epic; no
. •
' own be Ilomer
King is; never was ; never
- sang;net - 4 - abilles, but "Achilles' wrath and
that - dire iiirife -which- 'Bent unhidden .mariy
bratiii4:•Vit of berove, til;:-.11nrilet+T. Ms* ic:a
twin. btilitain(Qt Pius Xneas, but, Mug
and ther mati:—imd the unwastifig resentment
of cruel Juno." The bard. of modern Italy
-celebrates,—not-the-' greal-Captain,"_ but _"_the
pious arms which—liberated the holy aopul
olrr." The master of the English epic says ;
Of man's .firet - disobedience, its fruits
of woo—fill one greater man'restoro
' Deeds then and not men, arri the proper
auhject - of an heroic/poem: And as the poem.
nthir-iliaeussictli&_epic in its character, if ii
haVe character at all, we need not divert the
attention to other departments of the art but
'ask_wito then is Hiawatha, that Ilia deeds
should rank, him with heroes? Hiawatha is the
'what' ideal. of ,the incarnation ;"--the really'•
tion of the prarrtise4 need of the woman, which
shout I bruise.the serp - ent'a -head. The war
he had to work was the redemption O his
This PlZmise has been the g hope of the
.warliffrona Oe days. of_ Adam. _TlteApeoific
form Which this idea on,lin the pAt.:4lll
- World - , date rem the time of Noah. It
was a grandson of that father of the new world;
lawn i talent expectancy and the spirit of
npo si, first consecrated High-Priest , of this
orioue lope and invested with the character of
an - actual incarnaticn. It'is the _traditions of
this Patriarch anti his warlike compeers' that
-constitute _th_e basis of the mythologies rf all the
heathen world.' By a theory which irevailed
irr some nations, either of transmigration or of
a reqeytal -of. the ages,.-thisTincarnation Was
i'epeatiN,oother frequently or at the comple
tion.of a great cycle, and thelast_ } inoarna
tion,,and overshadowing' the earlier, was al
ways recent. now, Hiawatha w,as not merely
'such au incarnation, he was the priinal inear.
'nation. The very name of the grandwan 4 ; t of
Neat, is preserved. in the Indian formwith
entire- etymological ,dltitioctnets.. The scene
is ehiftedto,A new theater and the text of the
great, drama . not ,a little obscured, yet the
characteristio idea is 'every where traceable.
Hiawatha then and his compeers, are tha
world—gods of this unsubdued continent. The,.
traditions of their history 'and their deeds eon ,
.
atituted the owed literature of. the natlie
'tribes. 7 It wawthe songs of their praise that
echoed through the wilderness from the trc;pica;
If to the frozen'oaean • The/subject then is
sublimely heroic , No epic pen has, touQl4od,
a , leftler , theme
se,to the font of the poetm t
And'here the (melonwhet is requisite hi
• •
matter Of fornt ? Wslook to , the single verse,.
oraiuo, _ we may - say, When' as here, the line
and verse hippenle be—identical. Novv . we
know _that-each verse,wt have completeness
in itself; and that anfiplettnise is defined by
race
EMI
certalti"oharaaterietia featiirei• Wre
.-Ailiktiitle'anytti a viol )tituf4t have;;
thretY things; a beginittilg, a iniddle'and ati end. - 1
T hat •Is ; p,bi ; : ioorthititlic,fith er-. of.
orttioiew: TP►o "of there and =- only two; are
essential to a single Verse; •namery: the'
dle and the end. The end is di stinguioed '
- oither - rby - rhym(ror - by - a - Lfaidtrecurrenee - Of - a l
oirtain-foot-orchmbination cif_feet; or Certain
- thdiFtniddld, :by` the caesurat
pause. - Wherelho?..) •tWo--charaqteris tics,- are
warding; 'there:Ai. no verse.. It matters not,
that ..you print your compositions in .stort
lines; that they'are registered nic'ely On' -.the
left and give a, ragged outline on the right
thai each line begins . with , `' '; capital, and
that it reads liery:smOotbipLit is yet only .prose.
The subject may be ityln ,may.
equal the subject; it .may
, bit' pqtry ia-tvery
thing but form. as is.trae'ofOssiad and Tele
niaque, but thefOls no vatic, , This ie a law
if-the-art to vild • .et must; ho
• . .
Tried by this rule, Hiawatha, alas ! is watit•
iog. The' line has a middle but not a close;-
and it is this defeat mainly that has • drawn
upon it such & world of ridicule. The nn,
scientific reader was- immediately . concious of
some ' uncountable incongruity—dome po
etic absurdity which hi-could not define, but
which provoked his mirth and . madethe whole
thew oli
b l / 4\43,
_thing.ife
em a proper suhjeat - of - -
lesque. is Longfellow who is to • blame in
'all;this;-h-ihevtirld;_,Tlii world bilif right_ti -
to, laugh. when it can; nay,Wiust laugh,decord
ing to Dr. Valentine, when the nerve of one
of the - three , suporior .. oscular muscles is .
touched.- Now that is 'just the ,spot touched
by this would-be but_curtailed Verse._
.'• .
'I have already said, the poet must be judged
by. his,age ; and that the Muse of the present
age le notoriously freakish. She--1-ttid_l.limfore
kratnpted our Leifigfellnw to various whimsicali
ties,
.•Ho has essayed tho heroin hexameter,:
but only , to illustrate that it is just as com
pletely impractiCable in the English, as it is in
the Germm or any , other • modeen language.
.._
The age of that measure is with the past. .He
has tried nearly every other form in the an-
Clint models, with like s.unces . And now he
has attempted the Troclueic D miter— a scale'
filrowable inthe:Gfete - pfilf b_ecauie - it - admit.
tad there With entire facility , nearly every
I
-other kind of foot, in any place in the meter.
-The ittle lines were thereby diversified': and
muoica .. The English has no such , license
The-movement thererore becomes at once in
tolerably stiff:---just as precide and unpoetio.as
ra. row of 'pins., Our author has done
_what a
umeter-hoild 00U Id di& to4radeern -thisac detects;
hut they' are, in the eye of the art, tiredeetna-
These features are the caprice of the 'age, I
-havw_said—Dihere, not only-true,,__poets e but
poetasters of every grade, bate similarly set
'at defiance all rules of art. The parts of their
work bees no relation to each other, in f.'_...'
They put lines 'in juxtaposition whir). • e so
short and so loag,, that same lime .o middle
and others bare no end. The gnore the idea.
_oLLatio which is the - oen idea of beauty.
They have outvied th noionts who fantattl
°ally composed w da, but ever with, a strict
'regard to proportion, into tho forms ofvarlaus
r0,.6 9
sensible lots ;—as for instance ; the form
i
oft utterly vrith expanded -wings. You
might just as well paste together two pages of
1 •
preae - by a corner of the leaves, and call It .
poetry. Another favorit&to - red was that of the
vase, irbioh, ever pleasing in its - outline to the
......
eye, is still preserved in all that kind or com
positions wornibg .under_the:original, and prop.
er sense - of the Latin carmen— that is, all for
mal, .•
inscriptions, . dedications , titles, eta. Now
you might just as well call the title of a book
poetry, as much of thi4 stuff, of which the only
obaraoteristio is that Ms Very strait on •one
side and Very - ragged l° en -the other,-- or very
'ragged on both eid . md in - ita whole dress
and gait, very shabby. 4 .
---Ltnt-is—theio-no—apology—for our .poetlin
°hosing such it trieaspre ? lie evidrntlytiought,
the extrenie of simplicity; and in that he was
true to his subject. He conceived rightly that
It should come. ' ' , ~ -
.
With the odors bt thei threat
, -With thodew 'anddiunp of meadows,
With the curitsiameio of wigwams,
With the•rushing of great rivers, '
With their fre4thint repoiktiolis,
And i6air wird reyerborations, ,
Aa of thunder In theanountains."-
And if there be no other form that would
meet this requisition:llion - ilia the sake' of the
simplicity and for the sake of the grandeur pt
the theme, we must make a 'virtue of the ne
cessity.: But . I. do not see but the Itimbie
movement, which the modern ear almost:tint.
venally demands, is equally simple ;. and jet
heir different in
-Its ntelody7 - There le sitiapli
cityin the air of 11 Old 'there
is, in a Ave tallia",:jingiskiifsleigh44i yet the
. one is'perfeet - Monekoil , iiiirthinther perfeot
muslo. the' Itittibliv i ineieninent; tuk
have' combined ;4iversity. with: eimtitlolty,
.wheresp;in the niessnre ho ,has chosen s he is
almost straitened to an' absolute monetony.
It lathis p+iar kind of simplicity. that Ims
exposed it so sadly th . i.ulahnese of monete..,
'ny : that-has prilauccil'euehlm exuberant after-
Math.
, Any simpleton can make poetry after
BEM
'f tb
t so ;--.4 18 0 e Dim only'_apes
The mestlue.klees, yvight I ever_know ;is the
art of•poetry,.succeetled well enough vith the
4 . 1130/4_23 . c' wits ok:witti the tießiicll that
thejliffienity-ippedred,-whieli-he-oimild-nninr •
bring to chyme with the first. • But ibery.they, •
airs all;-'=ell east in jhe eame Mona:
Euch - etWin'airlike ,his.fellow as .tYro
yet"as independent of its fellows; as iflystook_____
alone in • the iiiiTrerie - . --- Wifetiver --- nan -- niske :
one line- can malie - a . thoustind. *. The roughest
•
Prentice hand enn • saw the-boards of equal '
length, and lay them in order like' brickbats
but when it is a matter of deve-tailing . amt
matching_ curve lines, that in a'''''''''
'' BA. .
But, enough of the form. ~I record 4,6'11114qt'
these ohjietitine:— • - •
It contravenes Abe law of the art: '
. 2. It ‘is of necessity monotonous. •
3. It is carricatured•• with fetal facility." -
I recur for a moment to the sibjeet. . l l'lieeet' • • •
traditiens . arnfoUnd mostly in the writings' of
Schoolor s ift :—in his Algic Researches and hie •
• „
reportsto the—Bureau of Indian Affnire -- at -
Washington: Such as are on record now, tire
probably all.that will "ever be prelerved "
that native lore of the wilderness. A very
miscellaneous mass, it seenis i , as it stands in
these records ;—Tery childish to the casual
reader, us only of , such • hu - g-ii•boo • stories as
grandams - use to ftighten- naughty -children
nithall—to theihiloSoplier,Tery curious : and -
rtivirlifits-nintter;:=land-liOw.---ituddenly-all------
inspiring+) the, poet." For it is only by that
inspiration which rare genius alotio can'give._
that our aythor . has seized. the leading idee
from•this 'apparent heap of rubbish and so
selected and combined the related ideas as to • . 1 _
form a complete whOle, - contiSfent Jo its parts, •
just in its . prOportiOns, magnificent iti the
grandeur ()f its outline. The treatment' of
the detail also . ; the arrangm . ent of facts, the
exhibition_ of passion and 7entiment, 4 the pro- .".
priety of diction—is "in - hermony with
noble conception. There , are passages of
exceeding,pathos. Instance the,scene,of des
solation—such a desolation es was ever wont
to visit the tribes when a winter like the pres
ent *settled • upon the" forests. Remember the
eoptie is in - the vicinity ;of lake Superibr, whore
- even - now, the snow bnriee the cottages_and
blockades the villages., No beset could 'Stir
abroad, and the boldest — hunter th
forth,
. -
And when famine and pestilence invaded the
wigwameii mark this wall, of an . guish—
" 1, the fitrair and the Myer,
0, thi.wasting of the famine,
O, the blastingof the fever, • •
' 0, the , walling of the children,
0, the anguish of the women.
All the earth waa sick end &tabbed,
Hungry wee the air arotind them,
Hungry wee the sky above them,
And the hungry stars in heaven,
Like the eyeauf Wolves, glared at them:"
But such passages are episodes.. The poem
is epic. zlia,y, it is the long-sought epic:.
Many poets bad plumed their Bmdalean
wings in, the hope, only to make, Mast Mil
Icarian Onture. Columbiads,. Amerienads;'
Allegbeniads, Washingtoniads, had been tried
breyery :variety of genius, in every varigr te,
form, but nOw•only the thenie of the imirica? -'1
epio reveals itself to a bars poet. -
_ _The tiotim of the peep is well sustained
this r(gard it meets the demands of the critic ,
. : .nd parries the reader , With increasing interest '
to the close : There is not in it that intensity of ,
passion,that outbursting rage and violence that
we see in the heroes of Troy... That were not
consistent with the Indian character; - and es- -
ilecially not consistent With the - character .of
these' . world-gods. Their passion la deep, and
stron., but corn .osed. Their confligt are
marked by a sense of a divine sustaining ens
orgy, which _ likens them _rather to MlltoWs
Battles , of the angels. \ There is nowhere that
reach and elevation of thought and profound
reflection or refined logic, which we see in
the Paradipe Leh; but_histead, the-ideas of
simple and uncultivated peoPle. And so com
pletely-stud happilydoes It represent the char
eater ofiltat people—'theeirele of their ideas
--their philesephy—theli.body -4' divinity—
that in spit`e of 'all Its d 'ilefeota Of form, It
' mist five. And ' , wheW the rattle Of smut!
arms that now:_besets it, shall have spout , lti
fury, and the smoke Wall • have - olilared up,
Hiawatha will take its place by side of .
the Iliad and karattli_seL est-as-the epict-of th e
Western-Continent; '
L.A. gentleman 'on board a steambOA
with his family; on being asked by his obit ,
dreg 'What made the boat - 10 i ' gave 'them the •
following vory 'acid description of • the ms:- •
chinery s - and its . principles: 'You ibe,,1117 _- .
dears, this ihingumbob here:FieB down alio'
that bole andfastei 4 ton the jignuoieoinil that L
oonneits with ther—orinkum•orankittr ••
tlien'that man, he's tliii:lengitiser,-- you-`know!
kind o' stirs up th•-=wbat do-you-oallzit, with
his long poker, and.ibey all shovo , along, snd
the biiat goesithead!
MEEM
M Saw no track of deer or rabbit,
•Irk the snosi_beheld no foot-prints,
In the ghastly, gleaming forest
. -Fell, - and•could not rise from weekne r si,
- Perlithed there with cold and hunger."
•
3
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MEI
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