Within this limit alone can the highest order of true
poetry exist. We need only here say, upon this topic, that, in
almost all classes of composition, the unity of effect or impression
is a point of the greatest importance. It is clear, moreover, that
this unity cannot be thoroughly preserved in productions whose perusal
cannot be completed at one sitting. We may continue the reading of a
prose composition, from the very nature of prose itself, much longer
than we can persevere, to any good purpose, in the perusal of a
poem. This latter, if truly fulfilling the demands of the poetic
sentiment, induces an exaltation of the soul which cannot be long
sustained. All high excitements are necessarily transient. Thus a long
poem is a paradox And, without unity of impression, the deepest
effects cannot be brought about. Epics were the offspring of an
imperfect sense of Art, and their reign is no more. A poem too brief
may produce a vivid, but never an intense or enduring impression.
Without a certain continuity of effort- without a certain duration
or repetition of purpose- the soul is never deeply moved. There must
be the dropping of the water upon the rock. De Beranger has wrought
brilliant things- pungent and spirit-stirring- but, like all immassive
bodies, they lack momentum, and thus fail to satisfy the Poetic
Sentiment.
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