Desultory Thoughts On Criticism - Prose Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A B B C D E F E G E H I J K LM| Let a man write never so well there are now a days a sort of persons they call critics that egad have no more wit in them than so many hobby horses but they'll laugh at you Sir and find fault and censure things that egad I'm sure they are not able to do themselves a sort of envious persons that emulate the glories of persons of parts and think to build their fame by calumniation of persons that egad to my knowledge of all persons in the world are in nature the persons that do as much despise all that as a In fine I'll say no more of 'em REHEARSAL | A |
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| All the world knows the story of the tempest tossed voyager who coming upon a strange coast and seeing a man hanging in chains hailed it with joy as the sign of a civilized country In like manner we may hail as a proof of the rapid advancement of civilization and refinement in this country the increasing number of delinquent authors daily gibbeted for the edification of the public | B |
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| In this respect as in every other we are going ahead with accelerated velocity and promising to outstrip the superannuated countries of Europe It is really astonishing to see the number of tribunals incessantly springing up for the trial of literary offences Independent of the high courts of Oyer and Terminer the great quarterly reviews we have innumerable minor tribunals monthly and weekly down to the Pie poudre courts in the daily papers insomuch that no culprit stands so little chance of escaping castigation as an unlucky author guilty of an unsuccessful attempt to please the public | B |
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| Seriously speaking however it is questionable whether our national literature is sufficiently advanced to bear this excess of criticism and whether it would not thrive better if allowed to spring up for some time longer in the freshness and vigor of native vegetation When the worthy Judge Coulter of Virginia opened court for the first time in one of the upper counties he was for enforcing all the rules and regulations that had grown into use in the old long settled counties This is all very well said a shrewd old farmer but let me tell you Judge Coulter you set your coulter too deep for a new soil | C |
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| For my part I doubt whether either writer or reader is benefited by what is commonly called criticism The former is rendered cautious and distrustful he fears to give way to those kindling emotions and brave sallies of thought which bear him up to excellence the latter is made fastidious and cynical or rather he surrenders his own independent taste and judgment and learns to like and dislike at second hand | D |
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| Let us for a moment consider the nature of this thing called criticism which exerts such a sway over the literary world The pronoun we used by critics has a most imposing and delusive sound The reader pictures to himself a conclave of learned men deliberating gravely and scrupulously on the merits of the book in question examining it page by page comparing and balancing their opinions and when they have united in a conscientious verdict publishing it for the benefit of the world whereas the criticism is generally the crude and hasty production of an individual scribbling to while away an idle hour to oblige a book seller or to defray current expenses How often is it the passing notion of the hour affected by accidental circumstances by indisposition by peevishness by vapors or indigestion by personal prejudice or party feeling Sometimes a work is sacrificed because the reviewer wishes a satirical article sometimes because he wants a humorous one and sometimes because the author reviewed has become offensively celebrated and offers high game to the literary marksman | E |
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| How often would the critic himself if a conscientious man reverse his opinion had he time to revise it in a more sunny moment but the press is waiting the printer's devil is at his elbow the article is wanted to make the requisite variety for the number of the review or the author has pressing occasion for the sum he is to receive for the article so it is sent off all blotted and blurred with a shrug of the shoulders and the consolatory ejaculation Pshaw curse it it's nothing but a review | F |
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| The critic too who dictates thus oracularly to the world is perhaps some dingy ill favored ill mannered varlet who were he to speak by word of mouth would be disregarded if not scoffed at but such is the magic of types such the mystic operation of anonymous writing such the potential effect of the pronoun we that his crude decisions fulminated through the press become circulated far and wide control the opinions of the world and give or destroy reputation | E |
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| Many readers have grown timorous in their judgments since the all pervading currency of criticism They fear to express a revised frank opinion about any new work and to relish it honestly and heartily lest it should be condemned in the next review and they stand convicted of bad taste Hence they hedge their opinions like a gambler his bets and leave an opening to retract and retreat and qualify and neutralise every unguarded expression of delight until their very praise declines into a faintness that is damning | G |
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| Were every one on the contrary to judge for himself and speak his mind frankly and fearlessly we should have more true criticism in the world than at present Whenever a person is pleased with a work he may be assured that it has good qualities An author who pleases a variety of readers must possess substantial powers of pleasing or in other words intrinsic merits for otherwise we acknowledge an effect and deny the cause The reader therefore should not suffer himself to be readily shaken from the conviction of his own feelings by the sweeping censures of pseudo critics The author he has admired may be chargeable with a thousand faults but it is nevertheless beauties and excellencies that have excited his admiration and he should recollect that taste and judgment are as much evinced in the perception of beauties among defects as in a detection of defects among beauties For my part I honor the blessed and blessing spirit that is quick to discover and extol all that is pleasing and meritorious Give me the honest bee that extracts honey from the humblest weed but save me from the ingenuity of the spider which traces its venom even in the midst of a flower garden | E |
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| If the mere fact of being chargeable with faults and imperfections is to condemn an author who is to escape The greatest writers of antiquity have in this way been obnoxious to criticism Aristotle himself has been accused of ignorance Aristophanes of impiety and buffoonery Virgil of plagiarism and a want of invention Horace of obscurity Cicero has been said to want vigor and connexion and Demosthenes to be deficient in nature and in purity of language Yet these have all survived the censures of the critic and flourished on to a glorious immortality Every now and then the world is startled by some new doctrines in matters of taste some levelling attacks on established creeds some sweeping denunciations of whole generations or schools of writers as they are called who had seemed to be embalmed and canonized in public opinion Such has been the case for instance with Pope and Dryden and Addison who for a time have almost been shaken from their pedestals and treated as false idols | H |
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| It is singular also to see the fickleness of the world with respect to its favorites Enthusiasm exhausts itself and prepares the way for dislike The public is always for positive sentiments and new sensations When wearied of admiring it delights to censure thus coining a double set of enjoyments out of the same subject Scott and Byron are scarce cold in their graves and already we find criticism beginning to call in question those powers which held the world in magic thraldom Even in our own country one of its greatest geniuses has had some rough passages with the censors of the press and instantly criticism begins to unsay all that it has repeatedly said in his praise and the public are almost led to believe that the pen which has so often delighted them is absolutely destitute of the power to delight | I |
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| If then such reverses in opinion as to matters of taste can be so readily brought about when may an author feel himself secure Where is the anchoring ground of popularity when he may thus be driven from his moorings and foundered even in harbor The reader too when he is to consider himself safe in admiring when he sees long established altars overthrown and his household deities dashed to the ground | J |
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| There is one consolatory reflection Every abuse carries with it its own remedy or palliation Thus the excess of crude and hasty criticism which has of late prevailed throughout the literary world and threatened to overrun our country begins to produce its own antidote Where there is a multiplicity of contradictory paths a man must make his choice in so doing he has to exercise his judgment and that is one great step to mental independence He begins to doubt all where all differ and but one can be in the right He is driven to trust to his own discernment and his natural feelings and here he is most likely to be safe The author too finding that what is condemned at one tribunal is applauded at another though perplexed for a time gives way at length to the spontaneous impulse of his genius and the dictates of his taste and writes in the way most natural to himself It is thus that criticism which by its severity may have held the little world of writers in check may by its very excess disarm itself of its terrors and the hardihood of talent become restored | K |
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Washington Irving
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