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Joaquin Miller: Literary frontiersman
Abstract
Joaquin Miller, Western poet and frontiersman, was born in Liberty, Union County, Indiana, on March 10, 1839. Named Cincinnatus Hiner Miller by his parents, he was called Nat or Hiner by his intimates up to the time he adopted the pen name "Joaquin." Joaquin Miller's rank as an American poet is not high. His poetry lacks the depth and felicity of expression essential to great poetry. But he is interesting as an example of the literary fecundity of the nineteenth century in America. Relatively untutored, he attained a mastery of certain of the forms of poetry, particularly iambic tetrameter, and exploited with great concentration if not always with literary success, the materials of the Far Western frontier. Joaquin Miller is much indebted to Byron for his poetic temperament and for some of his poetic forms. Like Byron he assumes the role of the proud rebel and wages war on a convention-bound world. At one period, Miller attempted to follow the subtle measures of Swinburne but his failure to master these forms must have been apparent even to himself. Something of the poetic style of Browning creeps into occasional of his poems. But despite these deferences to European, particularly English, models, Miller remains himself. The cardinal ideas that animate Miller's philosophy are not especially significant. He believes in liberty, freedom of conscience, and in democracy. He fights against intolerance and oppression. But we miss in Miller the unified and profound philosophy of what critics have come to call the major poets. Miller's use of poetic language is not unusual. His phrasing is essentially conventional and his diction, though occasionally but not too often touched by originality and elevation, is for the most part in conformity with the poetic diction of the Victorians. Miller at his best is a bold and vigorous painter of scenes of the Western frontier. His word pictures in "Columbus," "With Walker in Nicaragua," and "Kit Carson's Ride" are vivid and enduring. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)
Subject Area
American literature|Biographies
Recommended Citation
Peterson, Martin Severin, "Joaquin Miller: Literary frontiersman" (1938). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAIDP13897.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAIDP13897