Robert Morris, Ll.D., The Poet Of Freemasonry.

Robert Morris, LL . D ., the Poet of Freemasonry .

A WELL written and sympathetic appreciation of the late Bro . Dr . Morris , together with a portrait , appears in The Keystone for July . The writer considers that * ' Bro . Robert Morris , the inspired poet-laureate of American Freemasonry , was a power for good in our beloved Order , an elevating influence and a benediction that will not

diminish , but rather grow , with the coming years . By his poetic talents , his lectures , his circulation of good Masonic literature as a publisher , as well as by his noble and well spent life , he not only inspired and elevated the members of the Fraternity , and gave them a truer view and appreciation

of the inner beauties of Masonry , but he exalted our beloved Institution in the eyes of the world , and added to the general respect and esteem felt for Masons everywhere . " In his introduction to the final edition of his works , the poet says , " I became early fascinated with the wonderful machinery of Freemasonry , and what I felt I spoke

and wrote . I could no more check my thoughts than the tempest can silence the sounds it makes . Freemasonry appeared to me such a field for the reformer . Here was a body of selected men , united by indissoluble covenants , working out a few grand , simple principles of architecture , and having celestial wages in view . Was not this a perfect

theory ? I wrote because my heart burned within me and silence seemed impossible . I found that the effect of Masonry , properly appreciated , was to render men lovely to their fellows , pleasing to their God . In my poems I said as much , and said it in the most forcible , tuneful words at my

command . I have visited more than one lodge where learning , religion , the useful and liberal arts , law , polished manners , all that marks and embellishes the best society , is found , and of such I endeavoured to be the reporter , that by their life I might aid in vitalizing other lodges that" ' Lie in dead oblivion , losing half The lleeting moments of too short a life . ' "

Bro . Morris on another occasion deals with the subject of Masonic literature generally . " If , " he says , " Masonic literature may be justly divided , like other branches of human knowledge , into departments , then we may style one of those divisions poetry . The biographical , historical , and ritualistic divisions , added to that which is termed

belleslettres , in which fiction is introduced by way of parable , make up the ordinary understanding of Masonic literature , to which I would add poetry as the complement . " It is not too much to say that this branch of Masonic learning has bsen overlooked and neglected by Masonic

writers . The Order has had among its votaries Walter Scott , Lamartine , Thomas Moore , William Cowper , James Hogg , Robert Burns , George D . Prentice , George P . Morris , Charles Mackay , James P . Percival , and many others of poetic fame—men whose effusions will survive while sweet

sentiments , wedded to melodious diction , have any value ; but the united efforts of all these poets applied to Masonic themes scarcely Jill a dozen pages . Burns wrote one Masonic ode and rested . It is his-Adieu , a heart-warm , fond adieu , ' a piece so exquisitely affecting , so tilled with Masonic imagery , that we cannot read it without sensations of regret

that he wrote no more . Scott , Hogg , Moore , Mackay , none of them , so far as I know , ever contributed a line to the poetry of Masonic literature . " George P . Morris composed at least one ode , ' Man Dieth and Wastetli Away , ' which is worthy the man and the theme . Giles F . Yates contributed a paraphrase of the

133 rd Psalm , which has gone into large use in our lodges , ' Behold How Pleasant and How Good . ' Thomas Smith Webb left on record ' All Hail to the Morning , ' abounding with poetic lire and Masonic imagery . David Vinton gave us ' Solemn Strikes the Funeral Chime , ' which has found

extraordinary favour as a funeral hymn . With this , our stock of Masonic poetry is exhausted . " Not but that there is much jingle , mixed with stanzas of merit scattered through the pages of our books and periodicals , but they are not

such as will be selected by future writers to exemplify this Masonic age . " And why is this ? Does not the subject of Freemasonry suggest to the poetic mind a / light skyward ? If religion , and especially that derived from the contemplation of the Holy Scriptures , constitutes so favourable a theme for poets ,

because of its extraordinary array of imagery—types , symbols , emblems , and what not—does not Freemasonry abound even more in such things ? In fact , Freemasonry is composed of allegory , types , imagery , etc . ; it is in itself a true ' chamber of imagery . ' The very nature and purpose of the Order is

to teach one thing by means of another—to suggest an inward truth by an outward emblem . Yet the great writers whose names are given above seem never to have recognized this .

" Robert Burns found in the murmur of a brook and in the warbling of a bird the voice of his mistress . Walter Scott saw through the outlines of a rusty lance head or a broken pair of spurs , the imagery of a well foughten field . Thomas Moore drew from the twang of a rickety lute wails of lamentation for the decadence of his green old Ireland .

All this is in the nature of suggestion , the very essence of poetry . Yet these men could look coldly upon the most pregnant images of Freemasonry , the broken column , the mystic pillars , and a score of others . They could listen to a rehearsal of the Masonic covenants without once considering

the inexhaustible mine of poetic thought of which these were only the surface . "As compared with any other theme , I would give preference to symbolical Masonry as the richest in poetic thought , and I can only hope that the day is not distant

when a great poet will arise who will be to Freemasonry what Scott was to chivalry , Moore to patriotism , and Burns to rustic love . "

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