Page:The nature and elements of poetry, Stedman, 1892.djvu/207

Rh artificiality is the antithesis of naturalness. You may exhibit an apparent simplicity of style and diction, which Mrs. Browning, for instance, failed of altogether,—and yet have no sincere motive and impulse, in respect of which her lyrics and sonnets were beyond demur.

In poetry true beauty of detail is next to that of construction, but non-creative writers Beauty of detail. lavish all their ingenuity upon decoration until it becomes a vice. You cannot long disguise a lack of native vigor by ornament and novel effects. Over-decoration of late is the symptom of over-prolonged devotion to the technical sides of both poetry and art. Sound, color, word-painting, '''Over-elaboration. Cp. "Victorian Poets": p. 289.''' verse-carving, imagery,—all these are rightly subordinate to the passion of a poem, and must not usurp its place. Landscape, moreover, at its best, is but a background to life and action. In fine, construction must be decorated, but decoration is not the main object of a building or a poem. "The Eve of St. Agnes" is perhaps our finest English example of the extreme point to which effects of detail can be carried in a romantic poem. The faultless construction warrants it. Some of Tennyson's early pieces, such as the classico-romantic "Œnone" and "The Lotos-Eaters," stand next in modern verse. But I forego a disquisition upon technique. All of its countless effects One thing needful. are nothing without that psychical beauty imparted by the true poetic vitality,—are of