It is not
surprising that he should have been interested as well in the rude songs
of the British sailors, which he heard on crossing the ocean. He was
mightily amused at their simple refrain:
"Haul in the bowlin', long-tailed bowlin',
Haul in the bowlin' Kitty, O, my darlin'."
"That rude couplet," he said, "contains all the original elements of
poetry. Firstly, the anthropomorphic element; the sailor imagines his
bowline as if it had life. Secondly, the humorous element, for the
bowline is all tail. Thirdly, the reflective element; the monotonous
motion makes him think of home,--of his wife or sweetheart,--and he ends
the second line with 'Kitty, O, my darlin'.' I like such primitive verses
much better than the 'Pike County Ballads,' a mixture of sentiment and
profanity."
Then he went on to say: "I want my children, when they grow up, to read
the classics. My boy will go to college, of course; and he will translate
Homer and Virgil, and Horace,--I think very highly of Horace; but the
literal meaning is a different thing from understanding the poetry. Then
my daughters will learn French and German, and I shall expect them to
read Schiller and Goethe, Moliere and Racine, as well as Shakespeare and
Milton. After that they can read what they like, but they will have a
standard by which to judge other authors.
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