It is often true in criticism that a man "should like
what he does like; and his likings are facts in criticism for him."
Without very great learning and with strong prejudices in some directions,
Lanier yet had remarkable insight into literature. Lowell's saying
that he was "a man of genius with a rare gift for the happy word"
is especially true of some of his critical writing. Examples are
his well-known characterizations of great men in "The Crystal": --
Buddha, beautiful! I pardon thee
That all the All thou hadst for needy man
Was Nothing, and thy Best of being was
But not to be.
. . . . .
Langley, that with but a touch
Of art had sung Piers Plowman to the top
Of English song, whereof 't is dearest, now
And most adorable.
. . . . .
Emerson,
Most wise, that yet, in finding Wisdom, lost
Thy Self, sometimes.
. . . . .
Tennyson, largest voice
Since Milton, yet some register of wit
Wanting.
There are scattered throughout his prose works criticisms of writers
that are at once penetrating and subtle. The one on Browning
has already been quoted. The best known of these criticisms
is that on Walt Whitman, but it is too long for insertion here.
There is a sentence in one of his letters to Bayard Taylor, however,
that hits the mark better than the longer criticism, perhaps:
"Upon a sober comparison, I think Walt Whitman's `Leaves of Grass'
worth at least a million of `Among my Books' and `Atalanta in Calydon'.
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