Our present
theme, however, has regard only to its manifestation in words. And
here let me speak briefly on the topic of rhythm. Contenting myself
with the certainty that Music, in its various modes of metre,
rhythm, and rhyme, is of so vast a moment in Poetry as never to be
wisely rejected- is so vitally important an adjunct that he is
simply silly who declines its assistance, I will not now pause to
maintain its absolute essentiality. It is in Music perhaps that the
soul most nearly attains the great end for which, when inspired by the
Poetic Sentiment it struggles- the creation of supernal Beauty. It may
be, indeed, that here this sublime end is, now and then, attained in
fact. We are often made to feel, with a shivering delight, that from
an earthly harp are stricken notes which cannot have been unfamiliar
to the angels. And thus there can be little doubt that in the union of
Poetry with Music in its popular sense, we shall find the widest field
for the Poetic development. The old Bards and Minnesingers had
advantages which we do not possess- and Thomas Moore, singing his
own songs, was, in the most legitimate manner, perfecting them as
poems.
To recapitulate then:- I would define, in brief, the Poetry of words
as The Rhythmical Creation of Beauty. Its sole arbiter is Taste.
With the Intellect or with the Conscience it has only collateral
relations.
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