Page:The nature and elements of poetry, Stedman, 1892.djvu/224

194

and everywhere in Homer:—

All genuine epics and ballads are charged with it, as in "The Children in the Wood:"—

In the heroic vein, Arnold's "Sohrab and Rustum" has a primitive directness:—

The finest touch in Lady Barnard's ballad is the simplest,—that of the line,

But I need not multiply such examples of the beauty of direct statement of unsophisticated truth. It is too rare a grace among the analytic and decorative poets.

When we come to the reflective poetry of nature, the broad effects of Wordsworth and Bryant are