* * * * *
His poetic work lacks idiosyncrasy, and to credit him with having given rise to a ‘school’ is to be generous rather than just. His talent fell just short of his ambition. A busy life with its multitude of cares and interests left him too little time for brooding upon the great themes he affected, and there was wanting the gift for relentless self-criticism which operates almost like the creative power. None the less his countrymen have not begun to discharge the debt of gratitude they owe him. Taylor had great virtues. It should be imputed to him for literary righteousness that he was willing to undertake the long poem. He never, so far as is known, made the excuse our poets continually offer, and which is almost infantile, that the general public does not care for long poems,—as if a poet were under any obligation to the general public.
FOOTNOTES:
[57] The Picture of St. John was begun eleven years before Worsley published his fine version of the Odyssey in Spenserian stanza.
XVI
George William Curtis
REFERENCES:
Parke Godwin: George William Curtis, A Commemorative Address, 1892.
J. W. Chadwick: George William Curtis, an Address, 1893.
Edward Cary: George William Curtis, ‘American Men of Letters,’ 1894.