Feinberg/Whitman Literary File Prose "A poetry ´´ Not English Set American´¨ [1879?] A.MS. Draft with newspaper clipping. Box: 33 Folder: 11 See also Prose "The Poetry of the Future" (Feb1881). North American Review Offprints. Box33A Poetry "not English but American". Whether the following will expres opinions of the London Times not long since - referring to William Cullen Bryant, his death, and his place in literature are fully true, and fully exhaustive of the subject, or no, it is certain that our young verse-writers, and indeed American art students generally, will do well to read and carefully weigh them. Mr. WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT was in his eighty-fourth year, and eighty- four years would bridge over the modern epochs of most European literatures. In Germany it would cover nearly forty years of GOETHE's active life, and more than the whole of HEINE's. In France the achievements of CHATEAUBRIAND, LAMARTINE, BALZAC, VICTOR HUGO, and GEORGES SAND would fall within it. In England it would be the literary age of BYRON and WORDSWORTH, of SCOTT, and COLERIDGE, and TENNYSON. In America these eighty-four years sum up the life of the national literature and more than the literature. They all but embrace the birth of the nation. Mr. BRYANT, more than any other American man of letters, is identified with the national life. Public life in the United States, as Americans themselves are foremost in admitting, has a tendency to scorch up the bloom and freshness of intellectual tastes. American writers by a natural instinct seek to isolate themselves from direct contact with public affairs. EMERSON has made a rustic solitude for himself. LONGFELLOW has planted his home in the academic quietude of the New England Cambridge. Other scholars take refuge in such mere semblance of public life as United States diplomacy has till recently afforded from the jar and discord of home politics. WASHINGTON IRVING at Madrid and in London, MOTLEY here and in Brussels, Mr. MARSH at Florence and Rome, NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE in his Liverpool Consulate, have found leisure for learned researches or for meditation. Mr. BRYANT used literature and foreign travel as recreations after and before the turmoil of home politics. He was not merely an American politician; he was a New York politician. Both as a Democratic journalist and as a chief of American free traders he exercised a potent influence over affairs, while never ceasing to be recognized as the father of [*London Times*] [*June '78*] [*Immediately after the death of Bryant*] [*[?1879]*] [*June 78*] I am going to gossip a little with thee, Reader Dear, about Names - that is, about Words - that is, about Language.American poetry. What WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT was as a poet Englishmen know almost as well as his fellow countrymen. His verse is unfailingly graceful and thoughtful, with a music attuned to the best English models. So entirely English, indeed, is it that his rank is naturally assigned among English rather than foreign poets. Thus classed he scarcely claims a place higher than with our minor poets. At times a breath of inspiration passes over him. A subtle air of more than meets the ear here and there, as in his poem of “The Waterfowl,” varies the elegant monotony of his song. We feel a hope that we may be on the traces of a great writer. But the higher mood fades and dies away. The inspiration was caught; it was not born. Mr. BRYANT began to write when he was ten, and was almost at the culmination of his poetic career at nineteen. In his earliest and most boyish verse he is as melodious and has as fully the tone of the nineteenth century about him as in his most mature. American poetry is the poetry of apt pupils, but it is afflicted from first to last with a fatal want of raciness. BRYANT has been long passed as a poet by Professor LONGFELLOW; but in LONGFELLOW, with all his scholarly grace and tender feeling, the defect is even more apparent than it was in BRYANT. Ms. LOWELL can overflow with American humour when politics inspire his muse; but in the realm of pure poetry he is no more American than a NEWDIGATE prize man. JOAQUIN MILLER’S verse has fluency, and movement, and harmony; but as for the thought, his songs of the Sierra might have been written in Holland. Unless WALT WHITMAN is to be reckoned among the poets, American verse from its earliest to its latest stages seems an exotic, with an exuberance of gorgeous blossom, but no principle of reproduction. We are far from saying that there are no exceptions to the melancholy rule. LONGFELLOW has written stanzas which cling to the memory. POE’S “Raven” is an inspiration. That is the very note and test of the inherent want of American poetry. Great poets are tortured and massacred by having their flowers of fancy gathered and gummed down in the hortus siccus of an anthology. American poets show better in an anthology than in the collected volumes of their works. If American poetry take rank by the length of its existence, by the eighty-four years of Mr. BRYANT’S life, it must be esteemed a miracle of precocity. It has attained by a leap the right to be measured with the poetry of a literature numbering at least five centuries. It’s place is a much more modest one if it be determined by the proportion its merits bear to a nation which counts millions more of readers than Great Britain. The children of English farm labourers discuss in Michigan the beauties of the “Idylls of the King,” and Western loghouses devoured MACAULAY’S History as eagerly and almost as soon as the subscribers to London lending libraries. Americans themselves confess to a certain disappointment that a literary curiosity and intelligence so diffused have not taken up English literature at the point at which America has received it, and carried it forward and developed it with an independent energy. But like reader like poet. Both show the effects of having come into an estate they have not earned. A nation of readers I as required of its poets a diction and symmetry of form equal to that of an old literature like that of Great Britain, which is also theirs. No ruggedness, however racy, would be tolerated by circles which, however superficial their culture, read BYRON and TENNYSON. WALT WHITMAN, even without the repulsive eccentricities of his moral tone, must have sunk into obscurity among his countrymen from the want of mannered and borrowed polish which is his special distinction. American poets, like their audience, have been unable to resist the attraction of the vast orbit of English literature. They may talk of the primeval forest; but it would generally be very hard from internal evidence to detect that they were writing on the banks of the Hudson rather than those of the Thames. Americans often betray a gratified surprise at finding their poets as familiar to Englishmen as to their own countrymen. In fact, they have caught the English tone, and air, and mood only too faithfully, and are accepted by the superficially cultivated English intelligence as readily as if they were English-born. The higher cultivation on both sides of the Atlantic, while it honours and admires the accomplished intellect of men like BRYANT and LONGFELLOW, cannot but regret that gifts like theirs of melody are so devoid of spontaneity. For the English language to have been enriched with a national poetry which was not English, but American, would have been a treasure beyond price. It is something gained that American prose is developing a native character. At the time when WASHINGTON IRVING wrote it appeared to be running a danger of the same fate as American poetry. Even reproductions of “Sir Roger de Coverley” would have been dearly purchased at this cost. But the hurry and stir of affairs have emancipated American prose literature from a servile dependence on English models. We trust that the same leaders of English models. We trust that the leaders of American literature will never think it necessary to prove their freedom by adopting bad grammar, bad spelling, and malformed words. A language may be a perfect vehicle for independent thoughts without being distorted and revolutionized. The best American orators and writers prove practically how possible this is. We should be abundantly satisfied did American poetry show the same power as does American prose from the pen of a HAWTHORNE, or an EMERSON, or Professor LONGFELLOW himself, to transmute rather than borrow, to graft on to the stock of old English a genuinely native sentiment and tone. 00 to 15 each agst Ironstone and Hestia, 8 to 1 agst Bonchurch, and 10 to 1 agst Helen Mar. The favourite, with a slight lead of Hestia and Ironstone, with The Callant at the head of the others, made the running into the straight. Here Ironstone forged ahead, and appeared to have the best of it, but on nearing the stand Mr. Coventry brought up The Callant with a wet tail, and, taking a slight lead shortly after, won easily by a length ; a similar distance separated second and third, Ironstone being fourth, with Bonchurch last. The ROBERT DE WITVILLE PLATE (Handicap) of 200 sovs. Five furlongs. 16 subs. Mr. Mannington's Gladsome, by Gladstone - Good Lass, 3 yrs, 6st. 9lb. (Weedon) ... 1 Mr. Easton Grey's Medora, 5 yrs, 7st. 12lb. (car. 7lb. 13lb. (Constable) ... 2 Colonel Byrne's Finaneier, 3 yrs, 6st. 2lb. (Beach) ... 3 Mr. H. M. Harris's Mandarin, 6yrs, 9st. 2lb. (T. Cannon) .... 0 Mr. T. Ansley's Lady Ronald, 4 yrs, 8st. 4lb. (C. Jelliss) 0 Mr. Tuckwell's Elsham Lad, 6yrs, 7st. 7lb. (car. 7st. 8lb.) (Wood) ... 0 Mr. S. Evershed's Mayboy, 6yrs, 7st. 2lb. (Morrell) ... 0 Mr. T. Golby's Gadabout, 3 yrs, 6st. 10lb. (Andrews) 0 Mr. C. Bush's Beadman, 3 yrs, 6st. 8lb (Lemsire) ... 0 Mr. W. H. Hall's Reality, 4yrs, 6st. 2lb (T. Lane) ... 0 Mr. R. James's Aurora, 3 yrs, 6st. (Barker) ... 0 Betting.-3 to 1 agst Gadabout and Reality, 4 to 1 agst Mandarin, 7 to 1 agst Gladsome, and 10 to 1 agst any other. Lady Ronald, in company with Financier, Gadabout, and Medora, were the first away, but they had no sooner entered the straight than the first-named gave'way, and Gladsome, in the centre of the course, came through his horses, and with Medora and Financier in attendance finished the race home, the first-named winning a good race by a neck ; a length divided the second and third ; Mayboy, pulling up, was fourth, Aurora fifth, and Mandarin sixth, with Beadman a long way astern. -- (By Telegraph.) ORDER OF RUNNING THIS DAY. P.M. P.M. Cobham Stakes ... 2 0 British Dominion Selling Hunter's Flat Stakes ... 4 0 Race ... 2 30 Selling High Weight St. James [?] ... 3 0 Handicap ... 4 30 Sandown Welter Handicap 3 30 Two-Year-old Plate ... 5 0 10 SPORTING INTELLIGENCE. MANCHESTER SUMMER MEETING, Thursday. It has become sadly monotonous constantly writing of rain, nothing but rain, in connexion with racing, but the monotony is at length relieved, as to-day, instead of rain, we had some fine though dull weather, more suggestive of a heavy day in autumn than of the month of June. Now that the Cup has been decided the proceedings are somewhat lacking in interest, and the attendance on the course exhibited a sensible diminution in numbers, although it was probably up to the average of a by-day. The meeting will not compare with that of the last year or two, but it has been financially a great success. The very favourable manner in which Caper (the filly by Lacydes - Miss Pickle) had been handicapped in the Grand Stand Walter Handicap frightened all but three opponents from the field, and directly the betting commenced Lord Bradford's filly was made a great favourite, odds of 6 to 4 being laid upon her. In the race, however, she tired very much in the last quarter of a mile, and John Osbourne, who had been lying off and riding very patiently, brought up Blue Belle (who started at 4 to 1) and won cleverly, the presumed good thing of the day being, therefore, upset. There were but two starters for the Maiden Plate, Musselburgh, who should have beaten the [colt] by Thunderbolt - Saga, and Centenary, odds of 11 to 8 being laid on the latter (after 2 to 1 had been laid), who won with great ease, Archer's ill-luck continuing, for he had not won a race at the meeting. The winner is a well-bred colt, he being by Blair Athol -- Madame Eglantine, and therefore half-brother to Rosicru. cian, and it will be remembered that last year he ran second to Cyprus for the Woodcote. The attraction in the shape of added money brought out a respectable field for the Stewards' Plate, eight doing battle for it. Of these Red Cross Knight, who had much the best of the weights, was made a great favourite, 5 to 4 being taken about him, Templar being second in demand, at 4 to 1. There was considerable delay in consequence of a false start, which led to the Refinement filly galloping round the course, during which a heavy fog blew up from the river, almost obscuring the competitors from view. The favourite cut up very badly, and the race ended in a very easy victory for Telescope, against whom the nice price of 8 to 1 could always have been obtained. St. Margaret, the outsider of the trio that contested the Stamford Stakes, won very easily, and then there was a similar number weighed out for the Queen's Plate, for which there were eight entries, including Julius Caesar, who was, however, an absentee. The competitors were II Gladiatore, St. Patrick, and Knight Templar, and liberal odds were laid on the first-named. After a short distance had been travelled, St. Patrick, as usual, bolted, being apparently possessed of more judgement than his owner, and aware that he could not gallop the two miles. The others raced head and head to the distance, where Knight Templar was dreadfully tired, and Il Gladiatore, drawing away, won in a canter. The other races are sufficiently noticed below, the day's racing throughout having been tame and uninteresting. The GRAND STAND WELTER HANDICAP PLATE of 100 sovs. One mile. Mr. H. Braggs's Blue Belle, by True Blue -- Starlight, 5yrs, 10st. 1lb. 9 (inc. 4lb. extra) (J. Osborne) ... 1 Lord Bradford's Caper, 3yrs. 8st. 11lb. (inc. 4lb. extra) (F. Archer) ... 2 Mr. H. Hall's Helios, 4yrs, 9st. 11lb. (inc. 4lb. extra) (Morgan) ... 3 Mr. W. H. Pearson's Domiduca, 5 yrs, 9st. 9lb. (inc. 14lb. extra) (Maidment) ... 4 Betting. -- 6 to 4 on Caper, 4 to 1 agst Blue Belle, and 100 to 15 agst Helios. Caper made play, with Domiduca next and Blue Belle last, to the six-furlong post, where Domiduca took a clear lead of the favourite to the distance, when she gave way and left Lord Bradford's filly again in front. Helios challenged her half-way up, and she had no sooner disposed of him than a fresh opponent presented herself in Blue Belle, who won a fine race home by a neck; a length between second and third; a bad fourth. MAIDEN PLATE of 100 sovs. Five furlongs. Lord Kesteven's Centenary, by Blair Athol--Madame Eglantine, 3 yrs, 8st. 7lb. (T. Chaloner) ... 1 Lord Bradford's Musselburgh, 3 yrs, 8st. 2lb. (car. 8st. 4lb.) (F. Archer) ... 2 Betting.--11 to 8 (at first 2 to 1). on Centenary, who waited to the distance, when Musselburgh was beaten and the favourite won by three lengths. THE STEWARDS' HANDICAP PLATE of 300 sovs. Five furlongs. Mr. W. H. Shaw's Telescope, by Speenlum -- Remembrance 6yrs, [?]st. 5lb. (J. Snowden) ... 1 Lord Hasting's Violet Melrose, 3yrs, 6st, 8lb. (Hopkins) 2 Lord Kesteven's Flame, 3yrs, 5st. 11lbs. (Collins) ... 3 [?] 1178 1879? A Poetry 'Not English but American' prose. A.MS (1p. 69 x 21 1/4 cm. Written in ink, with some of the comments in blue pencil and some lines in red ink, on a very long piece of paper (almost 2 1/2 feet) made up by pasting together 1) strip of white paper, 2)verso of part of a City of Camden tax form for 1878 to Whitman for 460 Royden St val- ued at $300, #) top lines from a piece Whitman was writing (I am going to gossip a little with thee, Reader dear, about Names--that is , about Words-- that is , about Language.), and 4) clippings from two pages of The Times (London), 85 words: A Poetry 'not English but American. " Whether the following well-expressed opinions of the London Times not long since--referring to William Cullen Bryant, his death, and his place in literature--are fully true, and fully exhaustive of the subject, or no, it is certain that our young verse-writers, and indeed American art-stude is generally, will do well to read and carefully weigh them: (here begins the clipping) (over) 1179 (in margin:) London Times June '78 immediately after the death of Bryant ?1879 June 78 To printer Don't mind the red lines Part of this material appeared in 'The Poetry of the Future', North American Review, February 1881, pp. 195-210 (especially pp. 200- 201; and in Specimen Days.