Famous Single Poems
Here, then, is that quality of peculiarly hopeless poetasting which strikes cold upon the stomach, and makes man turn sadly from his driveling brother. Do we not know this sort of thing? Out of the rejected contributions in our waste-basket we could daily furnish the inside and outside of a dozen Balls. It is saddening; it is pathetic; it has gone on so long now, and must still continue for so many ages; but we can just bear it as a negative quantity. It is only when such rubbish is put forward as proof that its author has a claim to the name and fame of a poet, that we lose patience. The verses given in this pamphlet would invalidate Mr. Ball’s claim to the authorship of Mrs. Akers’s poem, even though the Seven Sleepers swore that he rocked them asleep with it in the time of the Decian persecution.
It must be admitted that Mr. Howells twisted the letters a little to suit his argument, but he was entirely right in concluding that they “do not establish a great deal”—even though the names of their authors were afterwards made public.
At a later date the Hon. George W. Wright, of Washington, D. C., who shared Mr. Ball’s cabin on the voyage to California in 1857, testified that he had seen that gentleman working on his poem, that they had discussed some parts of it together, and that he had become very familiar with it. He had asked for a copy, but unfortunately Mr. Ball had not given him one, asking him (as usual) to wait until the
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