" [13]
Swinburne says of Blake, and I feel entirely with him, though in my case
the application would have been different, that "The sweetness of sky and
leaf, of grass and water--the bright light life of bird, child, and
beast--is, so to speak, kept fresh by some graver sense of faithful and
mysterious love, explained and vivified by a conscience and purpose in the
artist's hand and mind. Such a fiery outbreak of spring, such an
insurrection of fierce floral life and radiant riot of childish power and
pleasure, no poet or painter ever gave before; such lustre of green leaves
and flushed limbs, kindled cloud and fervent fleece, was never wrought
into speech or shape."
To appreciate Poetry we must not merely glance at it, or rush through it,
or read it in order to talk or write about it. One must compose oneself
into the right frame of mind. Of course for one's own sake one will read
Poetry in times of agitation, sorrow, or anxiety, but that is another
matter.
The inestimable treasures of Poetry again are open to all of us.
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