u. •
The Columbia i)
VOL. VIII, PORTLAND, OREGON, NOVEMBER, 1909 No. 2
OTHER DAYS
JOHN D. NEELON.
Vacation’s gone; now Autumn breezes stir
The dusky tints that deck the maple’s bough;
And, musing on those pleasant days that were,
We wonder at the. change that meets us now.
That maple then and all the . fields were clad
In fairest cloth of nature’s weave; we lay
Amid the flowers and sunlit meadows glad,
And whiled the moments of each summer
— day. -
т
—
'Those days are gone; and all their beauties fair
Are lost beneath the drifts where dead leaves
fall; .
It matters not if all the trees arc bare, ...
And birds are flown to other skies, if all .
The summer now doth visionary seem,
Why still, . indeed, we dreamed a pleasant
dream. ‘ •
IRVING AS A STYLIST V
\ F. W. .BLACK. . ' .
The subtlety of style is marked in litera¬
ture. Literary style proper is an individual
attainment. Its general aspect, however.,
is recognized in the skillful blending of such
-elements as * Ease, Clearness and Force.
- These in the main are the essential qualifica¬
tions -of good style ; but it is the manner
or singulaF
execution by which the writer
attains these qualifications that makes liter--
• ary style an individual thing. Indeed, Buf-
fon has truly said: “Style is the man”; for
/
the temperament and personality of a writer
. are evidenced in his writings.
Literary style is not governed by a set’
of rigid rules or hard laws. Were this the
case, versatility” and* infused personality
- would surely fall short of good style, and so
mean failure. If literary merit were pro¬
portionate to a writer’s strict conformity
to fixed laws,, many of our eminent stylists
would necessarily be non-conformists. This
Would be true especially in the <casc of
Washington Irving. T
Irving is perhaps the most versatile of
our American prose writers. -The field of
his writings is large in extent and spe¬
cifically varied. He is as a passing ob¬
server, who views life and its personages
with an impartial eve, and having seen all, _
prefers to speak of the pleasant and whole¬
some rather than the sordid and distasteful.
• Irving’s broad, genial mind is shown1 in
his easy flow of sparkling humor and . his
light, kindly satire. Irving’s fame began
with his “Knickerbocker History of New
York.” In it the old Dutch traditions of -
Manhattan Island are revived by an irre¬
sistibly humorous treatment. The language
is simply conversational- rather -than his¬
torical; and in the reading one is inclined
to lose sight of any historical significance
which it may possess, and cling interestedly
to the delightful, humorous narrative.
Irving approaches the apparently tense sit¬
uation in the Dutch council with becoming
gravity, and prqceeds respectfully up to the
profound crises of Dutch thought; then
with surprising ease lie applies a droll simile
to the situation, and turns upon it a flood
of humor, — and— the situation is changed.
He perceives all incongruities and seasons
them with-gjotesque but highly striking
figures. Indeed, his figures of speech in
his “Knickerbocker ‘History” are simple,
natural, In every case expressive, and ap¬
plicable to his characters. Irving is never
keenly satirical. If we say the “History of ;
New York” is satirical we must surely mod- •
if
у
it by saying that it is only mildly and
gpod-naturedlv satirical. Whatever, aspect,
of intensity was given to Irving’s really
light satire in the “Knickerbocker History”-
grew out of the resentment of a few Dutch
' descendants, of' the numerous “Vans” ar¬
rayed bv Irving. Possibly, also, Scott’s
observation on the work gave Irving’s -sa¬
tire a deeper coloring than can really be
’ found in it. The eminent English novelist
‘ thus remarks : . .
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