The English Lyric 35 



to the hearer with a subtler force and finality. On this distinc- 

 tion the ballad is relatively independent of the music, the non- 

 dramatic song relatively subordinate to it. 



Historically both have attained complete independence. The 

 ballad by the use of refrain attains that effect of unity — emphasis 

 in iteration — which is else supplied by the music ; while the finer 

 types of pure lyricism reduplicate, verbally or ideationally, the 

 characteristic scheme of the lyric aria: there is a return in the 

 last phrase to the chord struck in the first, with the added force of 

 the intervening motive gathered into it, what was at first merely 

 objective being made subjective and personal. This latter type 

 of movement, in which external nature is poetically conquered 

 and humanized, Ferris Greenslet designates " the lyric return." 

 characterizing it as " the essential lyrical unity in which the poet 

 objectifies his mood in the beautiful object, or by a kind of mystic 

 egoism lays hold of nature to make her express himself." 



Such unity, with its poetic mastering of Nature, is impressively 

 achieved in Leopardi's I'lnpnito (I quote Sir Theodore Martin's 

 translation) : 



This lonely knoll was ever dear to me, 



This hedgrow, too, that hides from view so large 



A portion of the fair horizon's verge. 



But, as I sit and gaze, thoughts rise in me 



Of spaces limitless that lie beyond. 



Of superhuman silences, and depths 



Of quietude profound; so by degrees 



Awe troubles not my heart. And as I hear 



The wind that rustles through the brake hard by. 



That fitful sound with these vast silences 



I set me to compare, and so recall 



Eternity, and the roll of ages dead, 



And the live present, with its mad turmoil. 



Thus thought is founder'd in immensity, 



And shipwreck in that ocean's sweet to me. 



The shuttering confines of the narrow retreat serve only to 

 arouse the poet's imagination, till, ignoring the limitations of 

 sense, he passes ultimate horizons and takes compass of the still 



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