He preferred, as did Browning, who would have liked to reach the
masses, a dialect of his own, and he used it increasingly after
he was fifty. It was a dialect capable of infinite gradations of
tone, endless refinements of expression. In his threescore books
there are delicious poignant moments where the spirit of life
itself flutters like a wild creature, half-caught, half-escaping.
It is for the beauty and thrill of these moments that the pages
of Henry James will continue to be cherished by a few thousand
readers scattered throughout the Republic to which he was ever an
alien.
No poet of the new era has won the national recognition enjoyed
by the veterans. It will be recalled that Bryant survived until
1878, Longfellow and Emerson until 1882, Lowell until 1891,
Whittier and Whitman until 1892, and Holmes until 1894. Compared
with these men the younger writers of verse seemed overmatched.
The "National Ode" for the Centennial celebration in 1876 was
intrusted to Bayard Taylor, a hearty person, author of capital
books of travel, plentiful verse, and a skilful translation of
"Faust.
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