Page:Margaret Fuller by Howe, Julia Ward, Ed. (1883).djvu/144

Rh and broad, and the images it reflects are so beautiful, that the world of our time confesses itself greatly his debtor. The spirit of his life, too, has put the seal of a rare earnestness and sincerity upon his legacy to the world of letters. But let us hear Margaret's estimate of him:—

Longfellow is artificial and imitative. He borrow incessantly, and mixes what he borrows so that it does not appear to the best advantage. The ethical part of his writing has a hollow, second-hand sound. He has, however, elegance, a love of the beautiful, and a fancy for what is large and manly, if not a full sympathy with it. His verse breathes at times much sweetness. Though imitative, he is not mechanical.” In an article of some length, printed in connection with this, but first published in the New York Tribune, Margaret's dispraise of this poet is in even larger pro- portion to her scant commendation of him. This review was called forth by the appearance of an illustrated edition of Longfellow's poems, most of which had already appeared in smaller volumes, and in the Annuals, which once figured so largely in the show. æsthetics of society. Mr. Greeley, in some published reminiscences, tells us that Margaret undertook this task with great reluctance. He, on the other hand, was too much overwhelmed with business to give the volume proper notice, and so persuaded Margaret to deal with it as she could.

After formulating a definition of poetry which she considers "large enough to include all excellence," she laments the dearth of true poetry, and asserts that never was a time when satirists were more needed to scourge from Parnassus the magpies who are devouring the food scattered there for the singing birds." This