But from
Milton, too, one may take examples of it abundantly; compare this
from Milton:-
. . . nor sometimes forget
Those other two equal with me in fate,
So were I equall'd with them in renown,
Blind Thamyris and blind Maeonides -
with this from Goethe:-
Es bildet ein Talent sich in der Stille,
Sich ein Character in dem Strom der Welt.
Nothing can be better in its way than the style in which Goethe there
presents his thought, but it is the style of prose as much as of
poetry; it is lucid, harmonious, earnest, eloquent, but it has not
received that peculiar kneading, heightening, and re-casting which is
observable in the style of the passage from Milton,--a style which
seems to have for its cause a certain pressure of emotion, and an
ever-surging, yet bridled, excitement in the poet, giving a special
intensity to his way of delivering himself. In poetical races and
epochs this turn for style is peculiarly observable; and perhaps it
is only on condition of having this somewhat heightened and difficult
manner, so different from the plain manner of prose, that poetry gets
the privilege of being loosed, at its best moments, into that
perfectly simple, limpid style, which is the supreme style of all,
but the simplicity of which is still not the simplicity of prose.
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