Through the utterances of Longfellow, Whittier, and Lowell run a vein of moral seriousness and a sense of responsibility which, though admirable qualities for the conduct of life, are too weighty for the lyrical muse. Longfellow's gentle pathos tends to the reflective, and to him and Whittier the right and wrong of a question were of overwhelming importance. Neither is much preoccupied with his own individual view of the world as beautiful and joyous, but rather with his notion of the world as it ought to be. Lowell is eloquent and witty rather than musical. It is evident that our New England poets are not members of a community in which singing is an habitual means of expression for more than religious emotion. It may be that lyric verse will appear in the southern part of our country, where Nature is less hostile to man than she seems to be in New England. Of the popular poetry out of which it must spring, we have almost nothing. Music, especially vocal music, has become so complicated and refined an art as to be confined to semi-professionals, and what might be called popular poetry, the songs which pass from the music halls to the streets, is wanting in simplicity and sincerity as well as in native and original melody. In quality it is far removed from the crudest song Burns heard in his childhood.

Nevertheless, Mr. Stedman's American Anthology contains many vigorous lyrics not "sicklied o'er by the pale cast of thought" and not harking back to

FORMS OF ENG. POETRY - -18

the psalter or the hymnal. The encouragement we can gather from them is confirmed by Miss Marguerite Merington's verse:—

There is a race from eld descent,

Of heaven by earth in joyous mood,
Before the world grew wise and bent
In sad, decadent attitude.

To these each waking is a birth
That makes them heir to all the earth,
Singing for pure abandoned mirth,
Non nonny, non, hey nonny no.

Successful ones will brush these by,

Calling them failures as they pass.
What reck they this who claim the sky
For roof, for bed the cosmic grass!
When failures all we come to lie,
The grass betwixt us and the sky,
The gift of gladness will not die!
Sing nonny, non, hey nonny no.

CHAPTER VII

SOCIETY VERSE AND THE VERSE OF CULTURE

THE poems which come under the head of Society Verse or Vers de Société are distinguished by subjectmatter and standpoint rather than by form. They are lyrical, but the mood they embody is not earnest nor pathetic nor gay with the true lyrical feeling, nor have they the peculiar musical character of songs. They are of no great length, for to be in the least tedious is fatal to the writer's aim. They are good-humored in tone, and have the unmistakable note of good society; an intelligent interest in trifles, a content with the surface of things, an ignoring of the real nature and meaning of appearances, and an equal avoidance of the serious and of the tiresome. A large part of life is concerned with things as they seem, not with things as they really are or as they ought to be. And society, using the word in its narrow sense for people whose main occupation is to find means of entertainment, has at its best the charm of elegance, gayety, and superficial propriety. If it is looked at with seriousness, it may become the theme of the satirist. But its pleasing surface does not necessarily conceal

It

corruption, vulgarity, and sordid ambitions. It is composed of men and women; and men and women, even under the dominion of conventional law, which regulates manners without regard to ultimate principles, present some charming and kindly aspects. Society verse dwells in a light and airy manner on these agreeable aspects, especially as they are brought out by the relations between the sexes. ignores what may lie behind or beyond. It is written by men of a happy mood who enjoy to-day, are careless of to-morrow, and do not regard yesterday as wasted because it is a day of pleasure past. requires in those who write it literary culture, or at least delicate literary feeling, lively susceptibility to impressions from the social world, and the power of fixing those impressions in finished verse. It must not be tinctured by cynicism nor by any but the most subacid and smiling satire. Its spirit is that of refined comedy, free from all exaggeration or burlesque, and restricted to a limited field of gay and graceful sentiment. Had Mercutio been a poet, he would have written society verse.

It

The art necessary to give distinction to society verse cannot be regarded as inferior because its subject-matter is a highly artificial condition. Art is a realization of the essence of anything, a striving for perfection, and perfection is absolute. The subject-matter of an epic may be greater in interest, weight, and dignity than the subject-matter of society verse. The thought may range over wider

interests, the mood be deeper and more serious, the humanity of a far wider scope, but the beauty of the short verse may be quite as great as that of the longer one with its episodes and its slow movement to the catastrophe, its hints at the underworld, and its recognition of moral law. Furthermore, the beauty of little things is much more easily comprehended than is the beauty of great things. It may require long study, and some knowledge of the development of philosophic and theological thought, before one can appreciate the reach and great proportions of Paradise Lost. But the unity of a short poem, characterized by gayety, airiness, and good humor, can be appreciated in a few moments and is in its way entirely satisfying. As far as beauty is concerned, the humming bird is nowise inferior to the eagle, and the humming bird is darting about among the flowers on the earth, whereas the eagle is high in the air or on the top of a mountain, where he is inaccessible to all but the most persevering and daring, though doubtless very impressive and in keeping with the lonely rocks. Art is an embodiment of the beautiful within the range of our perceptive faculties, and a cameo and a statue of Jupiter Olympus are equally works of art and may give equal pleasure. Mental contact with the nobler theme may be more elevating, but grace, precision, and delicacy of handling exert a refining influence even when exerted on trifles.