Poems: Patriotic, Religious, Miscellaneous | Page 8

of its surroundings.
Much has been said, and deservedly, in favor of the great poets of
antiquity. Unmeasured praise has been bestowed upon the epic
grandeur of Homer and the classical purity of Virgil. They have ever
been considered as foremost amongst the best models of poetic
excellence.
Yet there was wanting to them the true sources of poetic
inspiration, whence flow the loftiest conceptions and sublimest
emanations of genius. Homer never rose above the summit of Olympus,
nor Virgil above the level of pagan subjects and surroundings.
Therefore they cannot be properly regarded as the highest and best
models, certainly not the safest for Christians, who can feast their eyes
and fill their minds and hearts with more perfect models and more
sublime subjects. The sight of Sinai, where Jehovah, the God of Israel,
is veiled in the awful splendor of His Majesty, whilst his voice is heard
in the loud war and fierce thunderings amongst the clouds, as the
lightnings crown its summit,
is far more grand and imposing, more
sublime and inspiring, than are those subjects presented to us by pagan
authors,
however refined and elegant may be the language employed

to convey their thoughts and depict their scenes. Wherefore, the

Biblical narratives furnish the highest and best models and the richest
sources of poetic inspiration; and "all great poets have had recourse to
those ever-living fountains to learn the secret of elevating our hearts,
ennobling our affections, and finding subjects worthy of their genius."
The writer would not care to assert that Father Ryan's poems possess
the majestic grandeur and elaborate finish of the great masters, whose
productions have withstood the severe criticism of ages, and still stand
as the highest models of poetic excellence. His style is not that of
Milton, who soared aloft into the eternal mansions and opened their
portals to our astonished and admiring gaze, picturing to us "God in His
first frown and man in his first prevarication." Nor is it that of
Shakespeare, whose deep and subtle mind
fathomed "the dark
abysses of the human heart," and laid bare and naked the varied doings
of mankind! Nor is it, least of all,
that of Dante, who, with even
greater boldness than Milton, plunged into the impenetrable depths of
the infernal regions, whose appalling misery and never-ending woe he
has described in words of fearful and awe-inspiring grandeur. Neither is
his style like unto that of any one of the several leading American poets,
so far as their works are known to the writer, though some have said
that his style resembles that of the highly gifted and lamented Poe.
The writer will not undertake to say what place Father Ryan will
occupy in the Temple of Fame, though he believes that
an
enlightened public sentiment would accord to him a high position. The
chief merits of his poems would seem to be the simple sublimity of his
verses; the rare and chaste beauty of his conceptions; the richness and
grandeur of his thoughts, and their easy, natural flow; the refined
elegance and captivating force of the terms he employs as the medium
through which he communicates those thoughts
and the weird fancy
which throws around them charms peculiarly their own. These, and
perhaps other merits, will win for their author enduring fame.
For the future of Father Ryan's poems we need have no fears. They will
pass down through the ages bearing the stamp of genius, impressed
with the majesty of truth, replete with the power and grandeur of love;
these are the purest sources of poetic inspiration; for both are attributes

of the Divinity. Strip poetry of these, and nothing remains but its
mutilated relics and soulless body; it becomes robbed of its highest
glory and its most enduring qualities.
Though the South may claim Father Ryan as her son of genius, whose
heart beat in sympathy with her hopes and her aspirations and of whose
productions she may well feel proud, yet no section owns him, since he
belongs to our common country, and in a certain sense to mankind, for
the fame of genius is not controlled by sections
or circumscribed
within limits; it extends beyond the confines of earth -- yea, unto
eternity itself! It is proper to regard him in this light as the heritage of
the nation, for in the nation's keeping
his fame will be secure and
appropriately perpetuated.
All sections will unite in doing honor to
his memory,
which is associated with grand intellectual triumphs,

won by the union of the highest gifts of the Creator --
the union of
religion and poetic genius; the former the source and inspiration of the
latter.
Father Ryan also wrote several works of prose, chief amongst which is
that entitled, "A Crown for Our Queen". Like his poem, "Last of May",
this book was intended as a loving tribute to Mary,