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June 7, 1856.] THE LEADER. 547
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TRANSATLANTIC LATTER-DAY POETRY. Leaves ...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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The Sandwich And Society Islands. Travel...
otives especially in remote parts of the islands where they are least under * Le influence of foreign ideas . Even when they are thua influenced , the trurrtrle between barbarism and civilization is interesting , and barbarism stilf * bas the best of it . Whatever has been done for the amelioration of the natives has tended principally to the suppression of gross and cruel crimes , and the extinction of idolatrous and abominable rites . The difficulty of instilling into the minds of the people an appreciation of the positive refinement of Europe , of giving the natives a sense of that high propriety which distinguishes society in our high moral latitudes , has proved almost insurmountable , and there appears even to be an apprehension in the minds of some whether it can ever be accomplished , before the race become extinct . Tf is nainful to contemplate the decay of races and tribes under the tenderest
care of civilization ; yet there appear to be symptoms indicative of the dyin <» out of the aboriginal inhabitants of these islands , at least where European civilization has touched them . The natives also seem to feel that they are doomed . When they fall ill they refuse , under this impression , to take the commonest care of themselves , and lie down to perish . In some instances impatience of sufferings hastens the issue of a disease . If they are attacked with fever they say that their boiling blood must be cooled , and rush out , if near the sea-shore , and plunge into the waves , or stretch themselves out on the beach for the surf to wash over them . If they reside in the interior of the island they lie down in some cool stream and there endeavour to quench the fire in their veins . The inevitable consequence is death in a short time . Epidemics are frequent ; and the want both of medical skill , and the attendance of friends as nurses , increases their ravages to a frightful extent .
Yet much is being done for the improvement of the natives . Schools have been established by the missionaries , and besides the mental subjects taught , the pupils are instructed in gardening , agriculture , and mechanics . But ' the people are neither industrious nor persevering . If they begin an undertaking , they rarely finish it . Near Honolulu may be seen several houses in the European style , in a half-finished _ state . The fact is the wealthier portion of the community took it into their heads to have suburban villas , and they were forthwith commenced ; but those who planned them had not the energy to carry them on , and there they stand mere shells and carcases , a monument of one of the most striking features in the national character .
It is evident that the products of these islands might become very valuable under a little ordinary industry if properly bestowed . They are air covered with the most luxurious vegetation . The fruits and herbs of tropical ^ climates are found here in abundance ; and the coffee-tree and the sugarplant have already been introduced . Our traveller had opportunities of judging of the capabilities of the soil under proper culture . Mr . Hall , an Englishman , has established a coffee plantation in Owyhee , for the purpose of making agricultural experiments , and this plantation Mr . Hill visited . In the West Indies the coffee crop frequently fails , but in these islands , as far as has been yet experienced , it is far more certain , and will probably , there- * fore , be ultimately one of the staples of commerce of the islands . The < joflfee , which our tourist tasted , he pronounced to be of a far better flavour
than any produced in the West Indian plantations . Mr . Hill visited the ruins of the principal temple of the old worship , in the grand court of which the god Kaili stood , exposed to the view of his terror-stricken adorers , and where the great King Kamehameha sacrificed the chief Konooa who had contended with him unsuccessfully for the sovereignty of the island . Near the spot wheTe Captain Cook fell may be seen high in the rocks that hang perpendicularly over the shore , deep caverns which the natives assert are the burial-places of their ancestors , but whether they are artificial or natural , or whether they are actually a necropolis , has never properly been ascertained . A . visit to the interior of either of them would quickly dispel doubt , and satisfy the minds of the curious and learned . They are said to resemble those . holes in the sides of the mountains of Egypt , and along the banks of the Nile , which are known to have been used for the burial ot the dead .
Mr . Hill was not ft resident at Honolulu . He was ever moving about , coasting alou" the shores of the island , landing to investigate some bay or valley , or to ° penetrate up into the lofty mountains of the interior , and especially the celebrated volcano of Kilanea in the island of Owyhee . He bad thus ample opportunities of observing the characters and dispositions of the natives , witnessing their habits and manners , their sports and amusements , and experiencing the mode of life they led . He found all hospitable and "Warm-hearted , particularly the women , who felt grateful for the altered condition of their sex , and in fact , for the moral change which had taken place in the condition of the whole island . On one occasion las dames de la IIidle of Owvhee entertained him to a fish dinner--for their husbands were fisherfan
men- " which national taste induced them to eat raw . One of the - sex undertook to be principal orator on the occasion , and made several revelations of things as they were . " Good howries" ( that is , gentleman ) , said she , 41 it was not fish only that wo eat raw before the missionaries taught us the new religion When I was a child , half the number of ua that are now present would have found your white body , fresh-killed as we should have eaten it , at least in a time of scarcity , but a meagre incal . When Mr Hill had made his survey of the Sandwich Isles he extended Mb travels southward to the Society islands , of which Otaheite is the principal , and Pomaro the quern . His stay here was limited to ten days or ho , owing to the departure of the only vessel by which he could leave the shore lor BOme time . He did not , however , fail to make tho best of his tune ; but upon the whole , " the impressions we retained after leaving this fair isle , hud less of the a-recable in them to counterbalance the dark pictures which the condition of ° a declining race must ever exhibit , than those which we
retained of the Sandwich Islands . . iJiniJ , We cannot dismiss the work without nursling to Mr . Hi " , wlioc travels are , apparently , to be continued , that he might advantageous y compress his matter . His style is heavy with redundant words . He should remember that brevity and upright linens , as they are the soul ol wit , so are they of light composition . His narrative is really interesting , and well worth tho reading .
June 7, 1856.] The Leader. 547
June 7 , 1856 . ] THE LEADER . 547
Transatlantic Latter-Day Poetry. Leaves ...
TRANSATLANTIC LATTER-DAY POETRY . Leaves of Grass . ( Brooklyn , New York : 1855 . London : Horsell . ) — " Latter-day poetry" in America is of a very different character from the same manifestation in the old country . Here , it is occupied for the most part with dreams of the middle ages , of the old knightly and religious times : in America , it is employed chiefly with the present , except when it travels out into the undiscovered future . Here , our latter-day poets are apt to whine over the times , as if Heaven were perpetually betraying the earth with a show of progress that is in fact retrogression , like the backward advance of crabs : there , the minstrels of the stars and stripes blow a loud note of exultation before the grand new epoch , and think the Greeks
and Romans , the early Oriental races , and the later men of the middle centuries , of small account before the onward tramping of these present generations . Of this latter sect is a certain phenomenon who has recently started up in Brooklyn , New York—one Walt Whitman , author of " Leaves of Grass , " who has been received by a section of his countrymen as a sort of prophet , aDd by Englishmen as a kind of fool . For ourselves , we are not disposed to accept him as the one , having less faith in latter-day prophets than in latter-day poets ; but assuredly we cannot regard him as the other . Walt is one of the most amazing , one of the most startling , one of the most perplexing , creations of the modern American mind ; but he is no fool , though abundantly eccentric , nor is his book mere food for laughter , though undoubtedly containing much , that may most easily and fairly be turned into
ridicule . The singularity of the author ' s mind—his utter disregard of ordinary forms and modes—appears in the very title-page and frontispiece of his work . Not only is there no author ' s name ( which in itself would not be singular ) , but there is no publisher ' s name—that of the English bookseller being a London addition . Fronting the title is the portrait of a bearded gentleman in his shirt-sleeves and a Spanish hat , with an all-pervading atmosphere of Yankee-doodle about him ; but again there is no patronymic , and we can only infer that this roystering blade is the author of the book . Then follows a long prose treatise by way of Preface ( and here once more the anonymous system is carried out , the treatise having no heading whatever ) ; and after that we have the poem , in the course of which , a ^ hort aut obiographical discourse reveals to us the name of the author . A passage-from the Preface , if it may be so called , will give some insight into the character and objects of the work . The dots do not indicate any abbreviation by us , but are part of the authors singular system of
punctuation : — Other states indicate themselves in their deputies . . . but the genius of the United States is not best or most in-its executives or legislatures , nor in its ambassadors or authors or colleges or churches or parlors , nor even in its newspapers or inventors . . . but alwa 3 'S most in the common people . Their manners speech dress friendships—the freshness and candour of their physiognomy—the picturesque looseness of their carriage . . . their deathless attachment to freedom —their aversion to anything indecorous , or soft , or mean—the practical acknowledgment of the citizens of one state by the citizens of all other states—the fierceness of their roused resentment —their curiosity and welcome of novelty—their self-esteem and -wonderful sAMPpathy—their susceptibility to a slight—the air they have of persona who never knew how it felt to stand in the presence of superiors — the fluency of their speech—their delight in music , the sure symptom of manly tenderness and native elegance of soul . . . their good temper and open-handedness—the terrible significance of their elections—the President ' s taking off his hat to them not they to him—these too are unrhymed poetry . It awaits the gigantic and generous
treatment worthy of it . This " criffantic and generous treatment , " we presume , is offered in the pa-es which ensue . The poem is written in wild , irregular unrhymed , almost unmetrical " lengths , " like the measured prose of Mr . Martin Farquhar Tupper's Proverbial Philosophy % or of some of the Oriental writings " The external form , therefore , is startling , and by no means seductive , to Eiv-lish ears , accustomed to the sumptuous music of ordinary metres ; and the central principle of the poem is equally sfc . per . ng . It seems to resolve itself into an all-attracting egotism-an eternal presence of the individual soul of Walt Whitman in all things , yet in such wise that is one sou shall be presented as a type of all human soul , whatsoever . He irocs forth into the world , this rough , devil-may-care ;_ Yankco ; passionof beinsentient inanimate
ately identifies himself with all forms g , or ; sympatfi « es deeply with humanity ; riots with a kind ot Bacchanal iury in the force md fervour of his own sensations ; xvill not have the most vieious or ibmidoiod shut out from final comfort and reconciliation ; is delighted with liroi lwiy New York , and equally in love with the desolate backwoods , aid he W stretch of the ' uninhabited prairie , where the wild beasts willow in tfe reeds , and the wilder birds . start upwards from the . r nests mmow m mi . , (] iv j uo mystery wherever his feet conduct or iTtl . Su . hts ' ansp r S a . 5 beholds * all kings tending towards the eontral soverei . nl Me . Such , as we conceive , is the key to this strange , Lrotesqu m bewildering book ; yet we are Jar from saying that the key wi u . the quirks and oddities of the volume . Much remains ot v eh we c fesH wi can make nothing ; much that seems to us purely fanlStrind preposterous ; much that appears to our muddy vision gratuitously prowiic . needlessly plain-speaking , disgusting without purpose , md sh , fful " r without re « ult . There are so many evidences oi a noble soul i W u ' H » - " h that we regret these aberrations , which only have the iSdiTinwhat ia genuine by the show . oI «»»« »««; f « -o ; and ¦¦¦
SrZ o , elleet oi uifcicreiuiuifj ; «»« " ^~ - •> , ,,, ;< l , lv | , ;< . li Wiilt reveals esneciallv do we deplore the unnecessary openness with wi » cu Wa t ft-veais ^^^^^^^^^^^^ it is also good , sometime * , to leave the veil across the km . 1 ^ That the- reader may h . t made acquainted with the vividness with winch Walt can paint the unhackneyed scenery of his native land , wo subjoin a panorama : —• \ U tho city ' H quadrangular houses . . in log-hut * , or camping wilh lumbor-mon , AL . rtUomtaof thc 7 ur . iji » iko . . . along tho dry gulch and nvulot-bcd ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), June 7, 1856, page 19, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_07061856/page/19/
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