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INDIANA UNIVEESITY STUDIES 



riving, in spite of certain eccentricities of mere theory, at a mature 

 and entirely reasonable judgment about both the function of the 

 poet and the diction of poetry. They failed to see that the differ- 

 ence between Wordsworth and Crabbe is in something deeper than 

 their subject-matter and their mannerisms, and that all contrast 

 between the two poets, not taking this deeper element into account, 

 is superficial. Crabbe said, the truth is the truth, and very inter- 

 esting for that reason ; Wordsworth said, the truth has always ele- 

 ments of beauty which it is the special province of the poet to color 

 with his imagination, and it is interesting for that reason. Thus, 

 though they often treated the same kind of subject, Wordsworth 

 and Crabbe were intent on producing different sensational effects. 

 Crabbe has no lyric quality, no note of mysticism. Crabbe does not 

 shadow forth the 'feeling of some vast and indefinable presence 

 beyond the finite forms described. As compared with Wordsworth 

 especially, he does not supply a philosophy of beauty to lift us 

 above the matter of fact. He does not see far into the new land 

 which he discovered. 



Crabbe 's poetry is the logical product of an age of reason. Yet 

 it is also the prophetic basis of something new. It has much of that 

 intellectual techniciue which alone makes possible accurate expres- 

 sion of feeling. Between Crabbe the realist and Wordsworth the 

 romanticist, there thus lies, perhaps, both the final distinction and 

 the transition between the old and the new sentiment for nature, 

 the old and the new poetry. 



See 'Shelburne Essays,' IT. 'George Crabbe.' P. E. More. 



