The criticism it received pained our poet, but did not at all affect his faith
in his theories of art. To his father he wrote from New York, May 8, 1876:
==
"My experience in the varying judgments given about poetry . . .
has all converged upon one solitary principle, and the experience
of the artist in all ages is reported by history to be of precisely
the same direction. That principle is, that the artist shall put forth,
humbly and lovingly, and without bitterness against opposition,
the very best and highest that is within him, utterly regardless
of contemporary criticism. What possible claim can contemporary criticism
set up to respect -- that criticism which crucified Jesus Christ,
stoned Stephen, hooted Paul for a madman, tried Luther for a criminal,
tortured Galileo, bound Columbus in chains, drove Dante into a hell of exile,
made Shakespeare write the sonnet, `When in disgrace with fortune
and men's eyes', gave Milton five pounds for `Paradise Lost',
kept Samuel Johnson cooling his heels on Lord Chesterfield's doorstep,
reviled Shelley as an unclean dog, killed Keats, cracked jokes on Glueck,
Schubert, Beethoven, Berlioz, and Wagner, and committed so many other
impious follies and stupidities that a thousand letters like this
could not suffice even to catalogue them?"
==
Since first coming to the North in September, 1873,
Mr.
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