726 POETKY 



meets with coldness and contempt in the public at large, but it is 

 noted and even approved by the intellectual few, who appreciate more 

 intensely eccentricity in an author, in proportion as they value in 

 themselves the sagacity which enables them to interpret it. By degrees 

 an ever-increasing circle of admirers imposes its own thoughtfulness 

 on the unreflecting public, which, though still unable to understand, 

 is no longer bold enough to ridicule. " Those who come to mock 

 remain to pray.'' Surrounded by a powerful body-guard, the once 

 neglected inventor of singularities tramples with impunity on the 

 traditions of art, and the coterie invests with a species of temporary 

 authority an eccentric practice which may have its primary roots in 

 Mannerism and Affectation. 



The just mean of a true work of Fine Art lies between Popularity 

 and Singularity; such a work is the expression of Universal truth 

 bearing the stamp of national character. The critic in judging a new 

 poem will do well to ask certain questions about its qualities. First 

 as regards its conception. Does it strike the imagination, in its gen- 

 eral effect, as imitating the idea of Xature as a whole? Does it reflect 

 in itself the strife of opposing principles which make up the sum of 

 our civilization, our Christian faith, our hereditary institutions, the 

 long tradition of European culture? Are these conflicting ideas fused 

 in it in the same way as we see them fused in. Chaucer's Canterbury 

 Talcs, in Shakespeare's Hamlet, in Pope's Essfnj on Man, in Gray's 

 Elegy, in Tennyson's In Memoriam ? So too in respect of expres- 

 sion, every English poem, which is really a work of line art, Avill com- 

 bine in itself the universal with the particular. If it is justly con- 

 ceived, if it holds the mirror truly up to nature, then the expression 

 also will seem natural, the art will be concealed, and the effect left 

 on the mind will be Uepose and not Violence or Singularity. Close 

 examination alone will reveal what thought and labor have often been 

 given to arrive at this result; the selection and rejection of ideas; the 

 choice of words characteristic yet not forced; the variation of periods; 

 the combination of harmonies; in a word, all that subtle mixture of 

 elements which gives life and soul and movement to an individual 

 style. And as a style of this kind is generalized by the poet from a 

 wide acquaintance with the practice of the best poets in our literature, 

 so it can be rightly judged only by those who have a knowledge of the 

 historic development of our language. In criiu-ising the language 

 of a modern poet, look in his verse to see if it possesses the hereditary 

 national quality of condensing thought in an epigrammatic form 

 see if you can find a family likeness in it to lines like these: 



Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown. SHAKESPEARE. 



They also serve who only stand and wait. MILTON. 



A Tnan sn various that he seemed to be 



Nut one. l'"t all mankind's epitome.- URYDE.V. 



