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THE COUNTRYMAN.
T-L -"*■ - ...-,T—I™.
TURXWOLD, GA., FEBRUARY 7, 1865.
“The Discovery of Sir John Franklin,
AND OTHER POEMS."
Late in the year 1857, our volume, entitled as
above, was published by Messrs. S. H. Goetzel
A Co., of Mobile. The compositions embraced
In the issue were metrical, and the rhymes
jingled pretty well, but the critics said there
was no poetry in the volume, and in this re
gard we do not differ with them.
The good will of our cotemporaries some
times induces them to say good things of us,
and we sometimes re-publish favorable notices,
in order to extend the circulation of our paper.
We know we are honest in our efforts to give
our people a journal peculiarly southern, and
when our friends of the quill endorse our pa
per, we wish the southern people to know that
the best judges pronounce The Countryman
worthy of their support. This is the reason
we re-publish the favorable notices of the press.
We hope that it is not through any motives of
vanity that we are induced to do so.
But we have had many bitter things, as well
as some favorable ones, written concerning us.
These we have filed away, along with the good
ones.
As this paper is our common-place book,
where we gather together all the pieces which
other people put into common-place books ot
the ordinary kind, we trust we shall be excused
for entering articles here which have accumu
lated in our portfolio, or which are of file other
wise, and which may be more conveniently
kept by putting them into The Countryman.
There are many articles, which we wish to pre
serve, that would not ordinarily be put in one’s
own newspaper. Among these things are crit
icisms favorable, or unfavorable, of one’s own
writings. But we have a way of our own of
doing things, and hence we are not always
governed by ordinary rules. Whatever ar
ticle we wish to preserve, or which another man
would put into his common-place book, we
put into The Countryman. Hence, and for
other reasons, we re-publish criticisms upon
our own works. Not only do we re-publish
those that are favorable, but those that are un
favorable.
In accordance with all the foregoing, we will
now present our readers with the following
criticisms upon “ The Discovery of Sir John
Franklin, aDd other Poems.”
The first, we^shall give, is one from the New
Orleans Sunday Delta, which we first saw in
the Atlanta Intelligencer, then edited by John
W. Duncan, whom Bill Napier calls “Little
Duncan.”
We were somewhat nettled at Little Duucan^
at the time, for republishing the article. For
though he threw in a douceur, in order to ap
pease any displeasure we might feel, we thought
be evinced a malicious pleasure in reproducing
the article. He prefaced the criticism from the
Delta with the remarks that precede it, as fol
lows ;
*<A COLD AND UNSUCCESSFUL HUNT.”
•* The literary editor of the New Orleans
Sunday Delta is quite savage in his criticism of
Mr. J. A. Turner’s poem, ‘ The Discovery of
Sir John Franklin.’ Under the head of ‘A Cold
and Unsuccessful Hunt,’ he, the aforesaid editor,
r*Bi’ET&ATI.8 the following, for which, he had
better prepare, as our friend Turner, like By
ron, will not be driven from the field, by even
the most caustic criticism.”
“Mr. J. A. Turner, of Georgia, has written
a book, containing what he calls poetry, and
what his enterprising publisher has had the au
dacity to endorse as such. The title of the book,
derived from the longest, and, therefore, on the
author’s principles, the most meritorious pro
duction it contains, is ‘ The Discovery of Sir
John Franklin, and other Poems.’ This title
infers that the work alluded to is a ‘poem.’
However we might be inclined to doubt this,
in the literary sense, we must acknowledge it
to be true, etymologically. The writer, doubt-
lees, had studied a little Greek, and knew that
‘ poem ’ originally meant ' a work and as the
‘Discovery of Sir John Franklin’ is about the
most labored effort we have seen, for a long
time, we shall not contest the appropriateness
of the designation. Since we have undertaken
to patronize southern literature, and give as
much of it as we can the benefit of our circu
lation, we think we ought not to overlook Mr.
Turner’s claims. We shall, therefore, lay .a
few chapters of his poem before our readers,
with such head notes as may serve to explain
its more recondite passages.
He seeketh the lost one in the north :
All over the north, ’mid the icebergs,
Roamed my hero (that is Dr. Kane) in search
of Sir John—
’Mid the icebergs he steered his bark well,
To find where the lost one was gone.
He steereth amongthe white bears,and seals,
and findeth men using barbarous tongues:
He steered to the isles where the white bear
Growls over the prey for her young—
He went to the place where the seal swims,
And men use a barbarous tongue.
We regret that the poet has not informed us
concerning the habits of that very peculiar race
ot men who live where the seal swims. They
may have been mermen, but we do not re
member that Dr. Kane mentions having en
countered any of that amphibious species of the
genus homo.
He borroweth a taper of the north light, and
eearcheth around the north pole, for Sir John :
He went to the home of the north light,
And be borrowed a taper to look
For the brave Sir John, near the north pole—
’Twas a hazardous journey he took.
We infer from this that it must be a custom
among hyperborean people, to light their dwell
ings, during the long winter nights, with ta
pers borrowed from the north light. It is grati
fying to know that the aurora is thus exceed
ingly useful, as well as ornamental.
The reader will observe the vividness of this
picture of Dr. Kane, hunting round the north
pole, with one of these boreal tapers in his
hand.
He seeketh information from his dogs :
O’er the ice, near the pole, did he glide well,
And ask of his steeds, as he rode,
‘Can you tell me some news of tne brave man V’
But the dog team in silence on strode.
He intsrrogateth a seal:
And he called to the seal as he passed him,
‘Have you seen in the caves of the sea,
The hero for whom I do seek well?’
But to tell him, no seal would agree.
As might have been expected, he couldn’t
quite come it over that seal. The discretion
of the taciturn animal, in keeping his mouth
shut, might have been usefully imitated by the
author of the poem.
He pracureth no information from the Esqui
maux :
And he said to the fur-clad northman,
‘Is the hero I’m looking for dead ?’—
But no tidings did come from the Esquimaux,
Where his sail the lost rover last spread.
In despair, he appealeth to the white bear,
which animal continueth resolutely Bilent:
In despair did he call to the white bear,
‘ Can you tell me the fate of Sir John f ’
But he got from the white bear no answer:—
Then swiftly he hurried him on.
He calleth to the sky, and the breeze, and
the icebergs, and the seas:
And he called to the sky above him,
And he called to the polar breeze—
And he called to the floating icebergs,
And he called to the depths of the seas.
Getting no satisfactory information, or, in
fact, no information at all, from these vari
ous objects, be persists in addressing the most
insane enquiries to all the fish, and fowl that
fall in his way, meeting, naturally enough,
with no sort of success. Finally,
Up sprang, in his pathway, a monster,
With countenance grizzly, and grim. *'»
This monster turns out to be death, whrh
treats Dr. Kane with a little more considera
tion, for he shows him the way to Sir John
Franklin, whom he (the doctor) finds in the
other world. The author takes the following
newspaper proem, as the text of his work :
‘ The rumored death of Dr. Kane, which
came by the last steamer, proves too true. The
adventurous navigator has embarked on his
last voyage. He has found Sir John Frank
lin.’
Now, we think our readers will agree with
us, that Mr. Turner had better write one more
such work, and then go, and find Dr. Kane.”
In addition to the foregoing savage criticism,
we had to endure the following from our friends
of the Mobile Tribune '•
A BOOK OF SOUTHERN POEMS.
“ We are indebted to Messrs. S. H. Goetzel,
and Co., for a volume whose title page is as fol
lows : ‘ The Discovery of Sir John Franklin,
and other Poems. By J. A. Turner. Mobile
and New York: Published by S. H. Goetzel,
& Co., and William N. White, Athens, Ga.,
1858.’
The volume is handsomely printed, but,
vve are inclined to think, will not increase the
literary reputation of this section. Books of this
sort had better be left unprinted, unless they be
printed for admiring circles of friends of the
author; and then they ought to be given away,
not sold. Whilst making these apparently
harsh remarks, we can applaud the enterprise
ef our townsmen, Messrs. S- H. Goetzel, So Co.,
who exhibit an earnest, and liberal disposition
to give to the publishing business, a * local
habitation and a name.’
The book takes its title from the longest po
em in it, and the motto to it, is from a news
paper, as follows:
‘ The rumored death of Dr. Kane, which
came by the last steamer, proves too true. The
adventurous navigktor has embarked on his
last voyage. He has found Sir John Frank
lin.’
In these words, there is a text for a poet, but
our author has only made it ludicrous. In or
der to show this, we furnish the following ex
tract :
All over the Dorth, ’mid the icebergs,
Roamed my hero (that is, Dr. Kane) in
search of Sir John—
’Mid the icebergs he steered his bark well,
To find where the lost one was gone.
He steered to the isles where the white bear
Growls over the prey for her young :
He went to the place where the seal swims.
And men use a barbarous tongue.
He went to the home of the north light.
And he borrowed a taper to look
For the brave Sir John, near the north pois—
’Twas a hazardous journey he took.
O’er the ice, near the pole, did be glide well,
And he asked of his steeds as he rode,
‘ Can you tell me some news of the brave man f*
But the dog team in silence on strode.
And he called to the seal, as he passed him,
‘ Have you seen, in the caves of the sea.
The hero for whom 1 do seek well f*
But to tell him no seal would agree,
And he said to the fur-clad northman,
1 Is the hero I’m looking for, dead *’