His lyric power lies in the genius of the piece. The sonnets, though
their excellence is lost in the splendor of the dramas, are as
inimitable as they: and it is not a merit of lines, but a total merit
of the piece; like the tone of voice of some incomparable person, so
is this a speech of poetic beings, and any clause as unproducible now
as a whole poem.
Though the speeches in the plays, and single lines, have a beauty which
tempts the ear to pause on them for their euphuism, yet the sentence
is so loaded with meaning, and so linked with its foregoers and
followers, that the logician is satisfied. His means are as admirable
as his ends; every subordinate invention, by which he helps himself
to connect some irreconcilable opposites, is a poem too. He is not
reduced to dismount and walk, because his horses are running off with
him in some distant direction: he always rides.
The finest poetry was first experience: but the thought has suffered
a transformation since it was an experience. Cultivated men often
attain a good degree of skill in writing verses; but it is easy to
read, through their poems, their personal history; any one acquainted
with parties can name every figure: this is Andrew, and that is Rachel.
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