Word: poetic
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Dates: during 1890-1899
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From Aldrich Mr. Copeland passed to William Watson, who was a master of criticism, and who drew his inspiration, or rather his form, for he had little inspiration, from the eighteenth century writers. His "Wordsworth's Grave" is a masterpiece of poetical criticism. Watson was not the most poetical of poets. He had poetical reflection, but little poetic infusion. He often tried to be witty, but has had little success as a humorist...
Both Tennyson and Browning, Mr. Copeland said, have done more than express the feeling of the moment. They have expressed the poetic feeling of the second half of the nineteenth century, just as Wordsworth, Byron, Shelley, Keats and Coleridge have done for the first half. From a standpoint of substance, rather than of form, Tennyson and Browning stand at opposite poles. Tennyson represents the spirit of science and law, while Browning represents the individual having his own way in spite of the law. In neither of them can we find the observation of nature and sympathy with it that Wordsworth...
Hugo, he said, tried to unite the corporeal and the spiritual, the real and the ideal. He took facts and in his attempts to make them appear picturesque and poetic he exaggerated grossly. It was this that offended the taste of M. Taine. He, in his characteristic love for accuracy and truth, could not but depreciate such a method...
...essentially a lyric poet and he was completely wrapped up in the romantic movement. He did not see that a scientific movement was making itself felt in literature. Those who did see the growth of this movement feared that its effect on poetry would be fatal. They believed that poetic sentiment and expression were incompatible with scientific accuracy. But their fears were not well grounded; for there sprang up a new school of poetry which proved that by reconciling these ideas to each other a better poetry would be produced...
...representatives of this school M. Bourget named M. Leconte de Lisle and M Sully-Prudhomme. Both are scientists as well as poets. M. Leconte de Lisle, the greatest of contemporaneous French poets, is a poet of nature. Actuated at once by the greatest regard for truth, and desire for poetic expression, he succeeds in picturing nature in language both accurate and poetic. M. Sully-Prudhomme produced psychological studies of character which, though they are true to life, show a depth of power and feeling equal to that of the romanticist. The school of which these men are the leaders...