1721. Robert Shelton Mackenzie to EBB
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 9, 152–154.
Oxford.
Sep 20. 1844
Madam,
It will be sufficient to say that you have made translations from the Greek, and as reference can be made to the articles, in the Athenæum, on the Greek Xn Poets, (which I recollect having read, with much interest,) let the public believe that these contain all.
I read the articles on your poetry in the Quarterly and in the Spirit of the Age, [1] and do not think that either writer quite understood the characteristics of your writings. The Quarterly article was more discriminative than the other, which, (to my taste) was a clumsy attempt at the antithetical,—balancing “the one” & “the other” between Mrs Norton & yourself,—finding resemblances & contrasts where none existed.
Morbid feeling, however well expressed, pervades Mrs Norton’s poetry. Now yours has a trustful sentiment, arising, I think, from the earnestness of the writer, whose conviction that she has a Thunderbolt at command gives an impressiveness to what she says. I would say that many write verses under the influence, perhaps, of stronger feeling than yourself—but that you write—faith-fully, earnestly—because you feel that the expression of the thought is better in poetry than in prose. I cannot fancy your saying “What shall I write.” Rather would it be, “I must write this, because it will find a voice.”
You must pardon my thus playing the critic,—your own frankness has led me into it.
America is a great audience[.] Every one, almost, has a bookshelf, with a good selection on it. Thousands, far away in the forest solitudes, where a strange face is rather a startling object, find solace & society, after hard labour, in the perusal of their books. A back-woodsman knows more about the modern literature of our common tongue, than many an estated man in England. This is one good, at least, of the piracy-system. The main evil is, exactly as you say, that the American author cannot get salt to his bread, by his pen. Hence, very few of them are all men of letters:—I mean, that with them Literature is rather a means than an end—an episode & not a soul-engrossing pursuit. They play with the pen rather than use it. Their poetry wants purpose. It simulates, instead of creating. The American poets are the mocking-birds of Song. They take the hue of the writer who pleases them,—the chameleon would appear their most suitable emblem. I know Mrs Sigourney well, and remember rather affronting her by saying that to be called “the Hemans of America” was not a compliment. [2] This very want of originating power and liking of imitation, (because of their liking of the thing imitated) makes Americans a noble, because a to-be-pleased audience. They are fond of felicities of expression, and though kind, are just & discriminating critics. If America liked my poetry, I would think it worth being liked. Here fame is made or marred, too often, by caprice or fashion. America has no petty cliques who can extinguish a poet by not mentioning him or by damning with faint praise. [3] Not only has every city its critics, but every village also. In the multitude there is wisdom.
Believe me, dear Madam,
faithfully & truly Yours
R. Shelton Mackenzie
Miss Barrett
P.S.—I think I shall not ask any author for particulars of Life. My wife “wonders how I could do it,” with yourself. I am glad you are better, and hope you will have many years more of authorship.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Pierpont Morgan Library.
1. For a reprint of the article on EBB and Mrs. Norton in A New Spirit, see vol. 8, pp. 341–344. For the text of the review of The Seraphim in The Quarterly Review (September 1840), see vol. 4, pp. 413–416. (For further details of Mrs. Norton’s life, see pp. 311–313.)
2. Gordon S. Haight, in his Mrs. Sigourney: The Sweet Singer of Hartford (New Haven 1930), cites the earliest located use of this appellation in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, 35, May 1834, p. 807. Edgar Allan Poe, in his review of Mrs. Sigourney’s Zinzendorff, and Other Poems (1836), said “We have watched … the progressive steps by which she has at length acquired the title of the ‘American Hemans.’ Mrs. S. cannot conceal from her own discernment that she has acquired this title solely by imitation. The very phrase ‘American Hemans’ speaks loudly in accusation: and we are grieved that what by the over-zealous has been intended as complimentary should fall with so ill-omened a sound into the ears of the judicious” (Southern Literary Messenger, January 1836, pp. 112). Mackenzie and Mrs. Sigourney had contributed to each other’s journals.
3. Cf. Pope, An Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot (1734), line 201.
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