The literary loves of MacDowell, who supplied him with such a wealth of inspiration, were Goethe, Heine, Shakespeare, Tennyson and Keats, and he was himself a poet of no mean ability.  Lawrence Gilman says, in his thorough analysis of his work, that, writing as he usually does from some poetic theme, the effect is lost if the hearer does not know the idea around which the composition is woven.  For instance, one is apt to take “A.D. 1620” for a funeral dirge, just to hear it without knowledge of the subject, as it somewhat resembles the Chopin Funeral March; but the title suggests something historic, and knowing the lines that inspired it, one can easily distinguish the waves and the majestic movement of a great ship putting out to sea.

Naturally, MacDowell drew heavily upon the German poets, Goethe and Heine, in his earlier works, as he began his serious study of composition in Germany.  Equally naturally did he turn to Tennyson, as they are alike in psychic development and in their powers of interpretation of nature.  Recently, in Lincoln, England, a new statue of Tennyson was unveiled.  It is by Watts, and represents the poet clad in a cape overcoat, with slouch hat in hand and his dog at his side.  He and his dumb friend have been strolling in the woods and his head is bent over an uprooted flower held lovingly in his hand.  Underneath are the lines which inspired the striking pose: 

  “Flower in the crannied wall,
  I pluck you out of the crannies,
  I hold you here, root and all, in my hand. 
  Little flower—­but if I could understand
  What you are, root and all, and all in all,
  I should know what God and man is.”

It is a beautiful conception, the big, tall man contemplating thus reverently, with bared head, the tender epitome of life.  The dog, with head upraised, points a comprehending nose in the direction of his poet-master’s find, and looks as if he longed to help him unravel the mystery.  MacDowell would adore this piece of sculpture, for he sought the secret of life in flower and brook and landscape, in mountain and vale and sea.

Gilman compares the “Sea Pieces” to Walt Whitman and Swinburne.  Like Whitman, MacDowell is no strict adherent to set forms, placing inspiration ahead of tradition.  Some of his most beautiful compositions are very brief.  Poe claims that there is no such thing in existence as a “long poem.”  Since a poem only deserves the name in proportion to its power to excite and elevate the soul, and a sustained condition of soul excitement and elevation is a psychic impossibility, the oft-used phrase is a contradiction in terms.  Applying this idea to the familiar piano compositions of MacDowell, they have every right to be called “tone poems.”  Poetry is the color-work of the mind, as distinguished from its sculpture and architecture, which represent mere form.  There is more than form in the compositions under consideration; the tinge of color is everywhere,