Page:Genius, and other essays.djvu/156

GENIUS AND OTHER ESSAYS who have won old triumphs may be sure that, if they hoard their fame too long, the newer aspirant—though not, perchance, the nobler—will become the favorite of the day.

Mr. Stoddard is the first of our Eastern poets to break the spell of their prolonged reserve. Many will choose to regard the title of his new volume as an intentional counterpoise to the popular mode, and as a pronunciamento of his own estate, fealty, and inspiration. It is derived, however, from a collection of those Oriental lyrics, to one of which we never listen without desiring to paraphrase the refrain in the Arabian Knights and say: "Pray sing us another of those love-songs which you know how to sing so well!" These elegant versions from the Persian, Tartar, and Chinese poetry, rendered with subtle and delicate touch, occupy the closing pages of The Book of the East. Taken separately they vary in merit and interest; but together they form a beautiful rose-garden, filled with flowers of both lustrous and sombre hues. We are glad to see them here, as they exhale the perfume of their author's earlier work and gracefully invite us to an acquaintance with the stronger and more elevated poems by which they are preceded.

Mr. Stoddard holds a place of honor amongst the few acknowledged American poets who stand halfway between the elder and new generations, and may be reckoned as at the prime of his powers. It is some fifteen years, we think, since he last made a collection of his minor poetry. Many of the pieces in this volume have appeared during the interval, and not long ago [142]