214 BIEDS AND POETS 



as poetry always must differ, in being alive and sym- 

 pathetic, instead of dead and analytic. There is 

 nothing of the forbidden here, none of those sweet 

 morsels that we love to roll tinder the tongue, such 

 as are found in Byron and Shakespeare, and even in 

 austere Dante. If the fact is not lifted up and 

 redeemed by the solemn and far-reaching laws of 

 maternity and paternity, through which the poet 

 alone contemplates it, then it is irredeemable, and 

 one side of our nature is intrinsically vulgar and 

 mean. 



Again : Out of all the full-grown, first-class poems, 

 no matter what their plot or theme, emerges a sam- 

 ple of Man, each after its kind, its period, its na- 

 tionality, its antecedents. The vast and cumbrous 

 Hindu epics contribute their special types of both 

 man and woman, impossible except from far-ofif Asia 

 and Asian antiquity. Out of Homer, after all his 

 gorgeous action and events, the distinct personal 

 identity, the heroic and warlike chieftain of Hellas 

 only permanently remains. In the same way, when 

 the fire and fervor of Shakespeare's plots and pas- 

 sions subside, the special feudal personality, as lord 

 or gentleman, still towers in undying vitality. Even 

 the Sacred Writings themselves, considered as the 

 first great poems, leave on record, out of all the 

 rest, the portraiture of a characteristic Oriental Man. 

 Par different from these (and yet, as he says, "the 

 same old countenance pensively looking forth," and 

 "the same red running blood"), "Leaves of Grass" 

 and "Two Rivulets" also bring their contribution; 



