ALEXANDER PETŐ FI have been ashamed to appear in such sorry garb before the public. They thought a holiday mood needfui to their sing ing, and that a gaia dress must commend their poetry. The classical Berzsenyi, by the way, actually used to put on a Roma n toga when he wished to feel in the proper mood for writing odes. With some poets we feel as if a barrier existed between them and us. Petőfi never makes us feel like that. He is not afraid of standing near us, that we may feel in close touch with bim. He does not disdain to sp eak of subjects commonly thought trivial, and he allows us to see into the depths of his soul. How did he dare to do this ? Because he knew that the depths of his soul could only reveal his absolute sincerity. He could venture to speak of trivial, every-day matters, because his personality turned even the grayest and dullest incident to gold. His imitators en deavoured to copy his sincerity, and tried to speak in his claring way. Apollo might appear uncla d, yet not every naked Greek youth carrying a lyre was an Apollo. The mantle of Petőfi did not descend on his imitators. Through his poems, the subj ect s he used to treat became fashionable. Every yo ung poet, as a matter of course, must needs have the same kind of father, some what rough, vehement and uncultured, though before Petőfi's time young men would have been silen t about that kind of father, and if he had been a buteber or an innkeeper, would not have mentioned bim for their lives. Now ali of them spoke of their mothers who silently loved them, and if their fathers had been too severe, secretly kissed them. They forgot that Petőfi had been kissed by the M use as w ell. They suddenly became interested in stud-farms, and horse-herds and strolling players.
