The latest development of the new mysticism, or symbolism, or
impressionism, which first came to us from the Continent, has just
reached the Editor of the FLY LEAF from the pen of an old friend.
It appears that my friend had been reading Maurice Maeterlinck’s “The
Blind” and “The Seven Princesses,” and he had come to the conclusion
that a painful poverty of ideas was palpably wrapped up in a barren
iteration of half meaningless and half ludicrous phrases. He then
turned to Stephen Crane’s recently published “Black Riders,” thinking
that symbolism might be a little more coherent and comprehensible
in the alembic of the colder and clearer Anglo-Saxon intellect and
imagination. He had heard Crane’s impressionistic book of rhythms
spoken of in the inner circles of the New York and Boston literary
world as a collection of startling psychological pictures--the Heaven
and Hell of the human soul by flashlight. The Boozy Prophet, Crane has
been called by a certain eminent critic--and there’s invitation to
human nature in such a piquant characterization.
But, for a long while, he labored in Crane’s pages, without discovering
the secret flame of spiritual insight that others had spoken of
so confidently, and he began to suspect that the profundity which
had allured so many minds was simply the fatal lure of the weirdly
incomprehensible, which is the inspiration of a good many schools of
art and new religions. He had looked for a burst of spiritual light
that should spur his tired imagination to renewed efforts in setting
forth the superior qualities of a certain brand of coal tar soap which
was the inspiration of his Muse for so much a week. He sank into the
rocker by the fire, and fell into a mood of despondent reminiscence,
weaving all the sad strands of his life into haunting fancies. Then, as
he says in his letter, a change suddenly came over him, and he sprang
up feeling oppressed and dizzy with a flood of crimson thoughts that
inspired his brain.--Ed.
Here is his account of what happened.
There is something irresistible about this new mysticism in poetry,
which those who have not pondered over its potent fascinations cannot
understand. It seizes upon the mind suddenly and without warning.
For years all my dreams of literary achievement and fame had lain
buried, and as I thought, a little sadly, dead--strangled by cruel
circumstance and devoured by an ever increasing family. I had become
completely reconciled to writing on tar soap and other commodities.
But all of a sudden my thoughts seemed to plunge into an abyss of
mystical yearnings after the impossible and infinite, and then I
recalled some of Crane’s verses with a new and vivid realization
of their photographic fidelity to perplexity of mind. Then, to my
amazement, I felt the divine afflatus rise overpoweringly within me,
and for the first time in my life I produced two lines which rhymed.
They ran as follows:
A goblin hung on to the horn of the moon
A-singing a love song composed by a coon.
I had never performed such a feat as this in my whole life before,
for even in my hours of transcendent ambition I had recognized the
essentially prosaic bent of my mind. I had always expected to be a
great prose writer, and I had felt a rather indulgent condescension
toward contemporary poets--especially those of my acquaintance. I
used to think prose was the only vehicle of modern thought, and that
all the great poets were dead. But when a man finds himself beginning
to lisp in poetry at a belated age, his views on the significance of
modern poetry are apt to undergo some important modification.
I thought this couplet a very fair beginning; but no well rounded
thought would come that had any relevance to the goblin, the moon
or the love song. So I leave the couplet to stand by itself as a
picture, suggestive of the fact that ambition may miss its mark, but
a love song will surely live in some heart. My next attempt--for I
was on fire with symbolic rhapsody--was a little more successful. I
submit it without comment. The lesson is so obvious.
I saw a bleeding head grinning,
It grinned at me; I grinned at it,
In fact, we both grinned irreverently.
But the smiling sun shone on!
I find the longer one delves in mystic poetry the deeper
philosophical problems one can sound in a very few poignant flashes
of symbolic description. Here is one of my happiest efforts:
As my worn soul lay wriggling in the dust,
I cried aloud to God in indignation
That he had so mistreated me;
But God only laughed, until He’d like to bust
And pointed out that dirt was all creation.
I turned off a number of other things, quite as profound and
fantastical, and I find that in mystical poetry the Deity lends
Himself to picturesque treatment a good deal more readily than any
other person or subject of immediate and contemporary interest.
So that in this way it leads the mind of the masses away from
the frivolities of the hour to the larger considerations of life
and destiny, and chastens folly with thoughts of the over-ruling
immutable providence that is too often forgotten in the bustling
cities of civilization.
I send you only one more piece, to which I have given the dignity
of a title. It is “The Dissatisfactions of Luxury,” and is in two
stanzas:
I heard a man mumbling in the horrid silence of the night.
He was chaffering aloud with the good God;
But God in the darkness vouchsafed no sign.
And I asked him, scoffing, what he desired of the Omnipotent.
“I am rich, I am Plutus,” answered he, angrily,
“And I am bargaining for the moon.”
“And why do you want it?” asked I in amaze.
“Because I am tired of all my other toys.”
“And the price?” asked I, scoffing, for I bore the badge of Lazarus.
“Untold millions, heaped up to Heaven’s gate.”
“Fool!” I cried in bitter derision;
“Offer the good God your corrupt soul.”
I can make affidavit I never wrote a line of poetry before in my
life, and so I am sorely troubled at this writing. This is a crisis
in my career. I do not know whether to continue in my employment as
a writer of soap and medicine “ads,” or to devote myself wholly to
the service of the Muses. The question is, am I a genius, or is this
new mystic poetry, which is so uplifting and inspiring, merely some
delusive imposture of bubbling verbiage?