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 be proven.' Noble as this is, one feels that it is less excellent than the mythological poems, where the thought is inextricable from the bodily form, as in Tithonus:—

It is contended by some of the critics, and among them by some of the greatest admirers of Tennyson's poetry, that he indulges his genius too much in curiosities of detail, in decorations that break the structure. Besides the turns of his verse, there are devices of fancy, it is said, which are too minute and exquisite for great poetry. The illustrations are too much for the main fabric. Certainly Tennyson makes a liberal use of the Homeric simile; and the Homeric