Pagina 141 de 1391

For there is a subtle influence of logic which requires to be

transferred from prose to poetry, just as the music and

perfection of language are infused by poetry into prose. In all

ages the poet has been a bad judge of his own meaning (Apol.);

for he does not see that the word which is full of associations

to his own mind is difficult and unmeaning to that of another; or

that the sequence which is clear to himself is puzzling to

others. There are many passages in some of our greatest modern

poets which are far too obscure; in which there is no proportion

between style and subject, in which any half-expressed figure,

any harsh construction, any distorted collocation of words, any

remote sequence of ideas is admitted; and there is no voice

'coming sweetly from nature,' or music adding the expression of

feeling to thought. As if there could be poetry without beauty,

or beauty without ease and clearness.