2023-04-06 02:50:28 by ambuda-bot
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xi
poet being to place the pieces in the proper position
according to directions supplied..
Such in brief is the judgment which a modern
reader may form of the epic. But in judging a poet,
we must judge him by his own standards and not by
ours. We must take into consideration a large number
of factors. We must not ignore the conditions of the
age in which he lived. The poetry of Shelley and Keats
were objectionable to Matthew Arnold, and a modern
student of English literature seldom enjoys the poetry
of Dryden and Pope. Still Dryden and Pope had their
days, as Shelley is dominating the taste of modern critics.
What I want to emphasise is that Dryden and Pope
had a genius for poetry which was as free to find ex-
pression in the epic style as the genius of Shelley was to
express itself in lyrics. Free ideas and revolutionary
notions of one age crystallise into orthodox beliefs and
dogmas of a later age. The epic style and the classical
taste were no more an obsession and an impediment to
the poetic genius in the eighteenth century than the
lyrical style and the restlessness of the romantic school
were to the nineteenth century.
We must have some clear notions of shackles and.
freedom. Water forms itself into a vast unmoving sheet
unless there are the two banks between which it can flow.
freely. When the rain sets in fresh volumes of water
flow freely along the dry bed of the river after every
summer, no matter that the bed was formed previously.
Limitation in itself is no obstruction to genius. There is
a clear difference between bondage and limitation, There.
poet being to place the pieces in the proper position
according to directions supplied..
Such in brief is the judgment which a modern
reader may form of the epic. But in judging a poet,
we must judge him by his own standards and not by
ours. We must take into consideration a large number
of factors. We must not ignore the conditions of the
age in which he lived. The poetry of Shelley and Keats
were objectionable to Matthew Arnold, and a modern
student of English literature seldom enjoys the poetry
of Dryden and Pope. Still Dryden and Pope had their
days, as Shelley is dominating the taste of modern critics.
What I want to emphasise is that Dryden and Pope
had a genius for poetry which was as free to find ex-
pression in the epic style as the genius of Shelley was to
express itself in lyrics. Free ideas and revolutionary
notions of one age crystallise into orthodox beliefs and
dogmas of a later age. The epic style and the classical
taste were no more an obsession and an impediment to
the poetic genius in the eighteenth century than the
lyrical style and the restlessness of the romantic school
were to the nineteenth century.
We must have some clear notions of shackles and.
freedom. Water forms itself into a vast unmoving sheet
unless there are the two banks between which it can flow.
freely. When the rain sets in fresh volumes of water
flow freely along the dry bed of the river after every
summer, no matter that the bed was formed previously.
Limitation in itself is no obstruction to genius. There is
a clear difference between bondage and limitation, There.