VI.
If I were asked where English poetry got these three things, its turn
for style, its turn for melancholy, and its turn for natural magic,
for catching and rendering the charm of nature in a wonderfully near
and vivid way,--I should answer, with some doubt, that it got much of
its turn for style from a Celtic source; with less doubt, that it got
much of its melancholy from a Celtic source; with no doubt at all,
that from a Celtic source it got nearly all its natural magic.
Any German with penetration and tact in matters of literary criticism
will own that the principal deficiency of German poetry is in style;
that for style, in the highest sense, it shows but little feeling.
Take the eminent masters of style, the poets who best give the idea
of what the peculiar power which lies in style is, Pindar, Virgil,
Dante, Milton. An example of the peculiar effect which these poets
produce, you can hardly give from German poetry. Examples enough you
can give from German poetry of the effect produced by genius,
thought, and feeling expressing themselves in clear language, simple
language, passionate language, eloquent language, with harmony and
melody; but not of the peculiar effect exercised by eminent power of
style. Every reader of Dante can at once call to mind what the
peculiar effect I mean is; I spoke of it in my lectures on
translating Homer, and there I took an example of it from Dante, who
perhaps manifests it more eminently than any other poet.
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