The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1873-05-01

= 'S ~" AoiROtlcH po0S WIS 80 rough
that it was said that he wrote to the sound
OF his own chariet-wheels. Pope. the
little wasp of Twickenham, who stung so
many rival by his criticism, writhed
more than once under the stings of his
enemies. His Essay ON Criticism was
characterized as ga pert, insipid heap of
commonplace ;" his Windsor Forest as a
sbarbarous rhapsody - and on one occa-
sion when, angling for compliment, he
asked his friend sMallet what new things
there were in literature, he was answered,
Nothing worth notice ouly thing
called an Essay on Man, made up of
shocking poetry and insnfferable philos-
opby.' II wrote it," cried Pope, stung
with rage, and his friend blushed, bowed,
and dartcd out of the room, never to re-
turn.
Is seems incredible that the great literary
bashaw of the eighteenth century, DR.. john
son, should have blundered SO egregiously as
he did In some OF his critical judgments.
Analysing with extraordinary acuteness and
sagaclty poetry OF the same class as his own,
and dissecting with Velpeau-liko precision
the nonsese and extravagances Of the meta
physical poets, he fails utterly when he ap-
plies his scalp pei to the more Imaginative
Dards. In his estimate of the classic poets.
like Pope and Dryden, he has shown mas
nfn fio;s.
but the moment he treads the enchanted
ground OF romantic poetry, he betrays an al
most utter want ofperception. Like deaf
man seated at q symphony of Beethoven, he
lacks sense ana hence for what is pictur-
esque and passionate the Enchanting raw
lshmen~ that would take the prisoned
soul" of more sensitive critic and Flap it in
Elysium"-he has no ear. The reading OF
F0rGd1se Lost he pronounced q duty rather
than pleasure. He declared the diction of
Millions LycidGs harsh, it's numbers unpleas-
ing and told Anna Seward that she would
hang dog that read that poem twice."
General Griffin says that, when he was q re-
viewer. he used to receive novels from the
publishers, accompanied with request not
TO cut the leaves, request that prevented
him from employing Hoods expedlens To-,
rapid rsViewing,-to cut the leaves, and
smell of the paper-knife Johnson's mis-.
takes sometimes provoke one to believe that
ne adopted similar method in doing hack.
work for Cave and his confreres He confess
ed th4rhe never read Milton through till he
was compelled to do SO, to gather words for
his dictionary. Chatterton he pronounced
"a vulgar, uneducated STRIPPING - and Col
Inns. the author OF the Ode to EUening,-a
! poem that floats into the readers mind like
stream OF celestial music, and which has
been compared to q melody OF Schubert
he pronounces harsh aud prosaic in his die
ton.
| Beattie, the poet, moral1st, and metaphy-
siclsn, stigmatized Churchiips verse as
"driveling and dull ;" and, in speaking OF the
fastidious Gray, who pruned and polished
his poetry with ceaseIess care, commands his
''his u"la6ored art ~ DR.. Renrick declared
Goldsmith's Traveller fimsy, and the Deserted
Village ''pretty, out deficient in fancy, Dig
Eity. genius. and fire." Gray could not sec
plays, which 10 literary resurrectionsist now
thinks OF disentombing nor could he dis
cover any merit in Rousseau's NouuelIe He.
lofse. David Hume, he sal a. had continued
all his days an infant, hut, unhappily, had
been taught to read and write The luxuri-
Gus Cleanliness and Eolian harp-lke emusic
of Thomson's finest poem, The Castle Of Tndo-
|
thought Collins lacked imagery.
The savage Clifford, who broke SO many
wretched bardings on the wheel of his sa-
tire, sdid good service to literature yet
nothing can be more senseless than some of
his critical judgments. Think of reviewer
calling Hazlitt dull blockhead, and affirm
ing Shelley's poetry is generally meaning
less The slaughterer of the Delts Cruscans
long had the unenvlabIe distinction Of hav-
ing killed Keats with crtique. and Byron
gave currency to the story by expressing his
establishment that
| The soul, that very fiery particle
Should let itself be snutfe out by an arti-
| Gle.
But Keats, sensitive and tender-souled asI he
was, was made Of stuff to stern to be stab
bed by goose-quill Such an onslaught,
however, as that of the Quarterly on hisarst
literary venture, could have been dictated
only by the bittere st political partisanship,
mingled with religious bigotry. The critic
| who declares the Prometheus Unbound to be
"driveling prose run mad" may be expected
to characterize The EOe Of 81. Agnes as 'gra-
tuitous nonsense
The reader has seen from these examples
that OF all the critics upon poetry, the most