The effect of the whole is musical beyond description.
It sings itself and yet nowhere sacrifices the thought" (Kent).
Another way to test the beauty of `The Song of the Chattahoochee'
is to compare it with other kindred poems. There are many stream-songs
in English, several of which are very pretty, but there is, I think,
but one rival to our `Song', and that is Tennyson's `The Brook'.
Even so careful a critic as Mr. Ward says that `The Song of the Chattahoochee'
"strikes a higher key, and is scarcely less musical." It will be instructive,
too, to compare Lanier's poem with Southey's `The Cataract of Lodore'
(see `Gates', p. 25), which exhibits considerable talent, if not inspiration;
with P. H. Hayne's `The Meadow Brook', which is simple and sweet;
and with Wordsworth's `Brook! whose society the Poet seeks',
which is grave and elevated. Professor Kent suggests as interesting analogues
Poe's `Ulalume' and Buchanan Read's `Bay of Naples'; and, if the student
cares to extend his list, he should read the stream-songs by Bryant,
Mary Ainge De Vere (`Century', 21.
Pages:
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144