Chapter XIII

On the Imagination, or Esemplastic power

XIV Occasion of the Lyrical Ballads, and the objects originally proposed—Preface to the second edition—The ensuing controversy, its causes and acrimony—Philosophic definitions of a Poem and Poetry with scholia

XV The specific symptoms of poetic power elucidated in aCritical analysis of Shakespeare’s Venus and Adonis, andRape of Lucrece

XVI Striking points of difference between the Poets of the present age and those of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries—Wish expressed for the union of the characteristic merits of both

XVII Examination of the tenets peculiar to Mr. Wordsworth— Rustic life (above all, low and rustic life) especially unfavourable to the formation of a human diction-The best parts of language the product of philosophers, not of clowns or shepherds—Poetry essentially ideal and generic— The language of Milton as much the language of real life, yea, incomparably more so than that of the cottager

XVIII Language of metrical composition, why and wherein essentiallydifferent from that of prose—Origin and elements of metre—Its necessary consequences, and the conditions therebyimposed on the metrical writer in the choice of his diction

XIX Continuation—Concerning the real object, which, it is probable, Mr. Wordsworth had before him in his critical preface—Elucidation and application of this

XX The former subject continued—The neutral style, or thatcommon to Prose and Poetry, exemplified by specimens fromChaucer, Herbert, and others

XXI Remarks on the present mode of conducting critical journals

XXII The characteristic defects of Wordsworth’s poetry, with the principles from which the judgment, that they are defects, is deduced—Their proportion to the beauties—For the greatest part characteristic of his theory only

SATYRANE’S LETTERS

Keyboard: ← → chapters · t contents · s settings · b bookmark · / search · f fullscreen