The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1890-07-13
mon consent defined under the name


ting the greater after the less, il may
be replied that. in Browning's phrase
I'VE are made so" that a lyric which
has beauty and entrsin OF versitication
to recommend it to the ear will, for Q
time at least, give pleasure to thou
sands, even where the thought il OF the
thinnest; while the thought will not
make its way. even for the moment, &c
popular sympathy. if clogged by harsh
or hating versification. The third in
dispensable quality of lyric poetry is
concentration; that reserve of express
| sion which springs from the perception.
only to be found among the most per
feet artists in poetry, that all pas
sages which do not distinctly
aid in giving force to the expression OF
the thought or the narrative-all which
are not necessary, in fact..to its full de-
velopment, are not merely negatively
but positively injurious to the poem as
a whole. Few, indeed, are the long
lyrical poems which have met with any
general acceptance from the world.
The ballad, of course, will bear, and
even demand, greater length of dsyel-
opment than the subjective lyric; but
even here the multiplication of detail
and the admission of superfluous verses
tell inevitably against the unity and
force of the poem. as we observed when
speaking some time since of ROsetti s
remarkable ballad, THE Kings Trage-
dy, poem which only missed perfec-
ton in its type, through fatal redun-
dancy entirely out of keeping with the
proper proportions of a ballad mar
rative. Among lyric poems of
the subjective order one OF the
finest that could be named in regard
to form, thought. and concentration
Is Wordsworth little poem written
"when the death of Mr.. Fox was hour
ly expected poem embodying a
thought of profound solemnity, framed
amid grand imagery, and expressed in
a few concentrated verses OF perfect
rhythm and without superfluous
word This is, indeed, one of the most
grave and weighty utterances of Eng
lish lyrical poetry; suggestive of an or
gan cadence-shall we say?-rather
than of the wilder music of the Tyre;
and, 50 far, not in every sense a typical
lyric poem. The subjective element in
il is so dominant as hardly to leave
scope for musical play of verse; the
verse adequately expresses the thought,
and is unblemished its grave rhythm,
but it has not that glance of light and
glow Of color which play around the
lyrical verse of Shelley. with whom.
more completely perhaps than with any
other lyrical poet, we find the sub
isctive aud the lyrical element so bal
auced aud blended that they seem es-
sentially inseparabIe. The thought
with Shelley is a simple, often single
one: sometimes. as in the pathetic lines
commencing when the lamp is shat
tered" the thought Is dual. but it Is
never complex. 1t is the mission OF ly'
rio poety of the subjective order TO
adorn and render musical a simple
idea, not TO elaborate complex one,
in which the subjective element must
necessarily tyrannize over the lyrical
expression. For the most part Shelley 5
lyrics are far from being mere rhapso-
dies of verse, how brilliant soever, there
is. in nearly all the best of them. a
thought of more or less substance and
significance-a body that fills out the
poetic garment with the contour and
warmth arising from substantial life
within. And not only so. but the ina
ger, which forms the visible garment
OF the thought, the decorative design
Of the poem, is itself instinct
with definite thought, the quality
which distinguishes genuine poetic
imagery and metaphor from mere 81.
mile Matching To sit and play with
SMILES is the beau ldel OF poetic relax
alton; but when the poet comes to work
his SMILES into the permanent form OF
poem it Is not permitted TO him to
play with them too loosely. As IL has
been said OF ornament in architecture
and decorative design, that It's value Is
in direct proportion to the thought that
is in it. so it is of poetic Ornamental
must be lesser thought in itself, in
tensifying the expression of tne central
thought, not merely playing round 1t.
True. that it is not often that the com
plete Misrepresentation of thought and
mag nv, such as we see it IN the in-
stance of Shelley's couplet, quoted just
now. is achieved, but it ID in proportion
as we come nearer to this that the form
of expression becomes more truly the
nobly poetic, more inevitable and less
arbitrary, for that is the essential dis
tinction between the poetic and the
non-poetic use of iDagery.-The Edin-
burg Review for April.