lyrical poetry - OUDL Home

LYRICAL POETRYgrandeur as well as beauty of form such as Dantewas in quest of when he chose the canzone because" excellentissima excellentissimis digna sunt," a greattheme demands an adequate vesture, the dangerattending the statelier forms is that the poet maycome to think that they will support themselves. Ifproof were wanted of the entire sincerity of Milton'sartistic inspiration it might be found in the fact thathe made no attempt to repeat the splendours ofParadise Lost but shaped himself a purer, severer stylefor the last poems of his old age. Wordsworth failedin this as the inspiration of his first years flagged. Hissimpler lyrics are empty, his odes pompous, thoughthere were moments of recovery. The lines Upon theDeath of James Hogg are in the old rhapsodic mannerat its best:Nor has the rolling year twice measuredFrom sign to sign its steadfast course,Since every mortal power of ColeridgeWas frozen at its marvellous source,and I confess to a certain admiration for the statelyif a little frigid Dion, an ode that owes something toWordsworth's study of Chiabrera, if it just a littlereminds one also of Akenside.The epithet "lyrical'' prefixed to "ballads" in thetitle applies more properly to Wordsworth's contributionthan to that of Coleridge, for the latter did notgive a new effect to the ballad by making it a vehiclefor a new and passionate conviction,, the joy of a conversion.He did what Wordsworth failed to do, andin that miracle of miracles, The Ancient Mariner, gaveto the narrative ballad a dramatic intensity, a beautyof imagery, and a musical subtlety and richness suchas it has never known in all its history:36